I joined in the late eighties, but remember being told of an incident that occurred to our training department in the late seventies early eighties.
Our guys used to do fire safety training and part of it was an early video (from America) of a fire in a South American office block, where unfortunately there was loss of life, due to the smoke/fire and persons jumping from great heights with obvious results. While persons were always told not lean back in their chair at the start, once the lights went off for the video, some people did.
One day a guy was leaning back on two legs, when a graphic uncut scene appeared on the TV screen. He promptly passed out; cut his head open and ended up in hospital for the night with concussion. The instructors of the day, told me they used to wait with some glee, for the faint gasp of disgust from their audience at this particular piece of the film. (Because most Ff’s do have a little bit of a warped sense of humour!)
After this incident the training department had to review its use and it was withdrawn. Can you imagine our lawsuit society, with our “have you been injured at work culture”?
I have found a good over power point presentation and stark facts are enough to get the message over to any group. I have never used graphic images, the spoken word, and even a few verbal examples of house/work fires and their outcomes, good and bad. If you want a video, we use a fire extinguisher training video lasting around 20-minute’s. After all, that’s the only fire equipment, the average person will be using. I attempt to make them smile via a few little funnies, if it is all dome and glom, they’ll start to switch off.
Which ever you decide to use good luck.
