Fire Fighting

We recently had an advanced fire fighting course done. Believe me. Theres a HUGE difference from what we see in movies and the real thing. There was a replica of a part of a ship with three compartments and a tunnel. The whole purpose of the course was to train us to be a scene leader and incharge of such an operation and exposure to different scenarios. So each time, four guys would be allocated to be the fire teams(two in each team), who would go prep up for entry by putting on all the protective wear and breathing apparatus. The others would be helping with the boundary cooling(spraying of water from the outside to bring about a cooling effect and also used to find the locations of the burning fires inside).

When the first team had gotten ready, their air cylinder pressures would be taken to calculate an estimated amount of time they would be able to be inside before their air ran out. At first I thought it would be simple. I mean afterall, you go in there with the hose and just put out the fire right? And then you look around for the missing persons(dummys) and just carry them out one by one. How hard can it be right?

Well, one guy’s holding the fire hose and a torch while the other guy is helping him with the hose and maintaining communication with the outside. But the minute you go in there with this rather heavy gas cylinder on your back with a tight gas mask on your face, helmet, fire jacket and gloves on, its obviously really difficult to move about as you would without them. Its dark as hell in there. Not to mention the heat that can be felt despite the jacket and protective gear. Even when you shine the torch, its light reaches only about one and a half feet away from the torch due to all the smoke that’s continuously being released from the blazing fire. And you haven’t even located the fire yet. So you’re moving step by step dragging all these stuff along with you, feeling around with your feet and hands trying to find casualties in there(who are supposedly unconscious as they are dummies ofcourse). Your heartbeat is racing. You’re feeling claustrophobic and its hot as hell. By now you’re basically panting meaning that you’re using up more and more air.

So once you’ve finally located the fire you put on the hose and actually have to go at it till the fire is completely extinguished as its really easy for the fire to burn up again after a couple of seconds if you don’t. Once your air is almost replenished, you make your way back step by step trying not to hit urself against a pipe or trip over. When you’re out, the next team goes in and you’re supposed to change the cylinders with new ones and prepare the sets after doing all the necessary checks and make ready to go back in as soon as the other team comes out. It was excruciating. But by the end of the next day we had gotten pretty used to it and found easier ways to deal with the problems we face while in there. So overall I guess it was a really exciting course.

And to think that these were controlled fires that couldn’t spread more than a certain area. Not to mention the fact that by the time you go in there a few times, you’re familiar with the place and more aware of where to search and the layout of the spaces and floors. But still it was a huge challenge. Now I think of all those real fires which are ALOT bigger in size, temperature and magnitude that are occurring. The firefighters are going into places they have never seen before in their entire life with ALOT more smoke having the fear that the roof or floor might cave in at any given time. Not to mention how rapidly fires can spread and grow. So my hats off to all the brave firefighters who actually risk their own lives DAILY, jes so that they could rescue complete strangers. Good luck to all the guys who did the course. Great job out there. Hope the crew I have to work with are as competent and reliable as you guys. 