Fire Academy - week of February 14

February 20, 2011

This weekend turned out to be a firefighting weekend.

Thursday night was our regular Academy training class. It started getting us to don and doff all of our gear. I am definitely getting faster and closer to the two minute time limit although I still need to practice.  This was followed by lecture on fire behavior. The teacher was excellent although he didn’t follow the text.  To show fire behavior he had a candle at the front of the room. He ignited coffee creamer in the air and then showed that it couldn’t be ignited on his tray. He lit gasoline in a beaker.  He gave each of us tea candles and we looked at the flame.

I got home about 10:30 on Thursday night from fire training.  Around 11pm, the pager went off.  There was an accident on Boulder Canyon.  A man, probably drunk, had driven his car off into Boulder Creek.  Unfortunately, he also hit another car, although that driver was not hurt. For two hours, I assisted with traffic control. The man got out of the car by himself and was taken by ambulance to the hospital.  The tow truck driver had a hard time getting his truck out of the creek and back up to the road.  Friday morning and work came too early the next day.

On Saturday morning , Boulder Emergency Services was doing car extraction training.  Since I missed the training for our department last week, I attended this one. I ended up on the haul team, helping to haul the litters up the hillside.  I learned a lot of practical tips and tricks and things to look for.   I need to keep other gloves with my bunker gear and latex gloves in case there is a medical issue.  I need to put a pouch in with my bunker gear if I forget to take off my rings. 

This morning (Sunday), the pager went off at 7:30am.  Another accident on Boulder Canyon.  Three cars hit some black ice.  I was assigned to help another firefighter who didn’t have a radio.  This traffic was different than Thursday night.  There were so many people going up to Eldora for skiing and lessons that when traffic was closed down, the line stretched all the way down to Boulder.  I spent a lot of time answering questions.  Most people were patient, although there was one driver who went around the car in front of him to get stopped again.  After traffic was finally flowing again, I was able to go to the accident scene.  Although I thought that the cars had been taken away, they were still there and the tow truck operators were still getting them on their rigs. The owner of a B&B had piled snow partly onto the road, it had frozen and there was a black ice patch.  That’s what started the accidents. 

This afternoon, a woman was checking out her truck and let us know, so I joined and learned again how to engage the pump and fill the tank.  One of these days, all this will stick. 

Firefighter I Academy - week 2, 3 and 4

The first week of Firefighter Academy, we learned about  the PPE -- our Personal Protection Equipment.  PPE is the bunker gear, pants, coat, helmet, gloves and boots as well as the SCBA.  SCBA stands for self-contained breathing apparatus which is the air tanks and face masks. 

On our first practical day, we examined our gear to make sure they had no wear or burns and we still compliant.  My coat is nearly 20 years old which means that it is almost out of date.  My gloves are too big and the cuffs interfere with the cuffs of my jacket making them fit even worse.  After the practical day, I bought new gloves online that fit much better.  We spent time putting on and taking off all the gear.  We leave the boots inside the pants and just take the pants down to the top of the boots.  One thing we are going to be tested on is putting on all of our gear in two minutes or less.  This includes the air tank and mask.  We practiced this and I was always longer than two minutes. Not more than a few seconds, but it is something that I am going to have to practice.  In the two minutes we have to:

1.       Put head shroud around neck

2.       Step into boots and pants

3.       Pull up the pants and secure them.  Put the suspenders on.

4.       Pull on and secure the coat, making sure that the shroud is sill accessible for later.

5.       Open the regulated on the air tank and verbalize how full it is.

6.       Put on the air tank harness and secure and tighten straps.

7.       Put on the air mask ensuring a tight seal around the face.

8.       Pull the shroud over our head.  At this point there should be no hair or skin showing around the face.  I was having a lot of trouble with my hair. It is too long and it would stick out.  I am thinking of getting it cut very short or bringing headbands or hair ties for the next class.

9.       Connect the air to the face mask and start breathing.

10.   Put on, adjust fit and secure strap for helmet.

11.   Put on gloves.  Done.

For the next couple of weeks, we are supposed to practice using the air.  How long does it take to drain to half when we are doing vigorous work?  These are supposed to be 45-minute tanks, but the amount of time each person uses it depends on their size, how fit they are, and what they are doing.  At half-tank, we are supposed to be trying to get out of a building.  At quarter tank, a low air alarm will go off and we should not be in a building at that point.  We are also supposed to practice how long it takes to go from half full to the low air alarm if we are still and practice some various breathing techniques. 

I am really not very claustrophobic, but the bunker gear is big and bulky and can get very warm.  The face mask and the air can be scary and close.  It’s definitely something to practice with.  We also learned how to fill our tanks and that is going to be another thing to practice. 

After this first week of Academy, we had two weeks of Hazardous Materials training.  More people joined our class and we got a new instructor and book.  Hopefully, at the end of two weeks, we will pass the test and the practical and then be certified at the Hazardous Materials Operations level.  We will be able to support a Haz Mat team and do decontamination on a site.  The class was taught to have us pass the test.  The test was 50 questions with a passing grade of 80%, so only 10 questions could be missed.  I don’t know if I passed.  I do know of a few questions that I missed.  The night after the written test was the practical exam.  We were given a pesticide label and told to find the relevant information concerning its ingredients.  We were also given an MSDS (Materials Safety Data Sheet) which is something a company is required to have on hand when they work with chemicals.  Using the MSDS sheet we were to fill out a form identifying the health and safety risks of the product.  After finishing these exercises, we had three other tasks to perform.  We had to pull a firefighter out of a hot zone to a warm zone, remove the bunker gear and get to medical personnel.  We had to dam and dike a spill to contain its spread.  Finally, we had to talk about what to do in the scenario with a tanker with pressurize cylinders that are smoking near an office building.  We did all of these as a team.  All of these scenarios were simulated and the leak was just water from a fire truck. 

Hazardous Materials training is complete and the next weeks we return to fire academy.