NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 27

Godfredson said, adding that reducing
firefighters' exposure to the carcinogenic
environment of live fire training
can also reduce their risk of occupational
cancer.
The US Fire Administration has
taken a similar position, saying in a
bulletin published in 2020 that " VR
technology is raising the bar in firefighter
training while helping save
lives and conserve valuable resources.
The use of VR technology allows training
for incidents that cannot easily be
replicated or may be very costly to recreate,
not to mention eliminating the
hazards involved in live training. "
Conserving " valuable resources, " as
the Administration put it, is the other
important reason experts envision a
rich future of immersive learning in
the fire service-according to proponents,
immersive learning offers a
low-environmental-impact alternative
to live fire training. It may also be one
reason countries like Australia, where
more aggressive climate goals have
been set compared to the US, have
been quicker to adopt VR training.
" You can't ignore the environmental
issues in today's world, " Godfredson
said. " The fire service needs to be
seen as a good community neighbor,
and nothing freaks out the community
more than a big column of black
smoke going up as you say, 'Oh yeah,
we're doing a live burn for a training
exercise.' "
Little research has been done to
quantify the environmental impact
of live fire training facilities, but by
nature these facilities are major water
consumers and carbon emitters. For
facilities that train on more specialized
incidents, the environmental impact
can be even greater. A 2018 study published
in the Journal of Environmental
Management found that 7 percent of
all airports in Canada are likely contaminated
with perfluoroalkyl and
polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)-a
group of over 4,000 man-made chemicals
that don't naturally degrade in
the environment and that have been
linked to some cancers. On-site firefighter
training using firefighting
foam, the study says, is a major cause
of this contamination.
Evaluating the benefits immersive
learning could have on firefighter
health and safety-as well as firefighter
skills-is the goal of a new Fire
Protection Research Foundation project
funded by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency and Department
of Homeland Security that will be
carried out over the next two years.
" VR is only going to become a more
common part of firefighter training
in the next several years, " said Sreenivasan
Ranganathan, a project manager
at the foundation. " We hope this
research can give organizations like
NFPA the data and information they
need to assess this evolving technology
and potentially incorporate guidance
on immersive learning into codes
and standards related to firefighter
training. "
Until that guidance arrives, though,
it may be hard for fire departments
to fully embrace immersive learning,
according to Godfredson. Although
there's nothing in any NFPA code or
standard prohibiting the use of VR
or AR for training, he said the simple
lack of acknowledgement of the technology
may give some departments the
false perception that it's not allowed.
" If you look at the NFPA 1000 series
and NFPA 1400 series [which cover
firefighter training and professional
qualifications], there are mentions
of live fire training or hot fire training
everywhere, " Godfredson said.
" So people say, 'Well, if NFPA doesn't
approve immersive learning, we're not
going to use it.' "
Conversely, others envision immersive
learning not just as a part of NFPA
codes and standards, but perhaps
the topic of a standalone document.
" Because there is no standardization
in the definition of immersive learning
or what it is expected to achieve, I
think we'll end up with an NFPA standard
or guide on immersive learning
to help close that gap and assist fire
training academies and others in the
appropriate deployment and use of VR
and AR, " said Ken Willette, executive
director of the North American Fire
Training Directors and a previous head
of the Public Fire Protection Division
at NFPA. " It's definitely one of those
things the fire service is going to need
to have in its inventory to professionalize
the fire service. "
MOVING TOWARD ACCEPTANCE
A lack of code language on immersive
learning isn't the only challenge the
technology faces in gaining more widespread
acceptance in the fire service.
Experts point to fire service culture and
cost concerns as two other potential
barriers.
" We have unique barriers to adopting
new technologies and practices
that other professions may not, " said
Brian Brauer, associate director of the
Illinois Fire Service Institute, which
runs the state's fire academy. " Our
longer-term orientation makes us
inherently change-resistant, and part
of that resistance is aimed at keeping
things how they are. We might think,
'If we were trained using all [live fire]
methods, why does this new generation
need to be taught any differently?' "
Brauer says it's not an argument he
necessarily agrees with-just one he
has seen made. " It's like saying we
should still use horses to pull engines
and fire to create steam to generate
pressure. Sure, they worked. But why
not critically evaluate new technologies
and opportunities to see where the
delivery of training and education can
be improved? "
Surprisingly, research presented by
Norwegian scientists at the annual
International Conference on Information
Systems for Crisis Response and
Management in May showed that it was
firefighting students, not seasoned firefighters,
who perceived some aspects
of immersive learning less favorably
in a recent study. Out of a group of 19
firefighter students averaging 26 years
old, only 21 percent found the representation
of smoke realistic enough in
a VR firefighting simulation; 71 percent
of their more experienced counterparts,
averaging 40 years old, found
the smoke realistic enough. Overall,
though, 89 percent of the students
rated the experience as positive; all of
the experienced firefighters found it
positive.
One reason for this could be that
many older firefighters have actually
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NFPA Journal - Spring 2022

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