Students are faced with many challenges within a believable “story line” that mimics as closely and as safely as possible a Mayday event with floor collapse. The objective is to have students leave the training ground with confidence and an understanding of what it takes mentally and physically to stay alive and never give up. Participants are taken through a rapid progression of skill stations: forcible entry, wire entanglement, drywall breach, and a self-contained breathing apparatus emergency. They then partner up and become part of a crew that responds a short distance into the training ground with an instructor, force entry with a prop, and are led by their instructor into the house where the scripted evolution begins. The student is alone with all the stressors of that event: entanglement, falling debris, low profile obstacles, smoke detectors emitting, low-air alarms, and the impending doom of not making it out alive. However, the student will have all the skills necessary to complete the task and will have “handlers” along the way—individuals trained in mental rehearsal, goal setting, positive self-talk, and arousal control. The handler ensures safety while maintaining realism. The student never fails the course unless an unsafe act is about to occur. Students are given their video footage on completion of the class for self-evaluation.
