Fighting structure fires is one of the most dangerous professions on the planet. Literally, every incident involves high risk, often life-threatening situations.
As first responders, urban firefighters need to enter every burning building, residential or commercial, with the confidence and experience not only to tackle the fire but also to make split-second decisions that will save lives – sometimes including their own. This can only be achieved through rigorous training in real situations, with real fire, and real danger. Until now.
360immersive is one of the leading companies in the U.S. bringing virtual reality (VR) training to a variety of first responder fields. Fire department training budgets, especially in small, rural towns, are often very small, if they exist at all. With VR all that’s needed is a current mobile phone and one of the many varieties of inexpensive head-mounted displays now on the market.
Simply download an app to your phone, have your trainees put on the headset, and instantly immerse them into any number of dangerous fire situations, without a speck of danger. Trainees can actually see and hear everything ahead, behind, to the right, to the left, and every point of the compass in-between.
This increased level of situational connectivity results in a higher level of engagement and a proven increase in lesson retention. And many training modules come with the ability to give feedback and evaluate the user’s performance. Even better, firefighters can repeat the training as many times as they want, and come back to it later for refresher training, all at no additional cost.
