The Amsterdam Fire Department has a long tradition of maintaining its own tactics and procedures over the national standards all based on our experience, pride and rich history, going back to the 1600s. Change was not something easily achieved within the department, early 2000s we ran with 13-year-old fire trucks and woolen PPE! Fast-forward to 2023, the department has transformed every aspect of the firefighting operations, our tactics, our PPE, our fire trucks (Hybrid), our equipment and our training. This presentation will give you an overview of the motivations for change and the lessons learned. What works and what doesn't, who to involve if you want to have a radical change to make your operations modern and safe but still aggressive!
Learning Objectives:
The participant will gain insights in where Amsterdam-Amstelland fire operations differ from US operations, with the aim to broaden the horizon, not to promote these operations abroad.
The participant will learn that adopting the latest research does not mean changing everything you have ever done, but modifying your current practices to incorporate lessons learned in research.
The participant will learn that new insights on tactics need to be applied in their context, their build environment, their population, their staffing, what worked for us might not work for you, the process to get there is key.