Kimler Adventure Pages (http://randsco.com)

Live Fire Exercises

Maple Ridge, B.C. - Randsco exec, Scott Kimler, underwent a grueling set of "live fire" exercises, this past weekend, at the Justice Institute in Maple Ridge. Four other North Cedar Fire Hall firefighters attended the 2-day class and they were joined by other firefighters across the Province, bringing the class total to 20.

It took the better part of the evening to make the journey from Vancouver Island to the mainland, as the North Cedar guys caught the 5:00 PM ferry, fought infamous North Shore traffic and finally made their way to Pitt Meadows, where they stayed at the Ramada Inn.

Saturday's class was split up into two parts. The first part (morning) was an introduction to facilities, policies and other class-mates. After a short lunch break, the class began the practical portion, rotating through three scenarios: dumpster fires, auto fires and door entry into burning structures.

Burn Building: Colwood and Mill Bay firefighters gather before the "live fire" scenarios begin at the Justice Institute burn building in Maple Ridge, B.C. The 3-story concrete structure was used for various live fire exercises above/below/at grade, including RIT and search/rescue exercises. _{Randsco Newswire}

Sunday's class was all practical, as the 20-people were split into four groups of five and rotated through a number of scenarios.

The first scenario involved the entire group entering the concrete "burn building" and participating in a "fire behavior" lesson. Donning Scott 2.2 air-packs and full turn-out gear, they entered a small (20 ft x 10 ft) room, which contained a stack of wooden pallets. Breathing self-contained air, the pallets were lit on fire using a propane blow torch. After several minutes of fueling the pallets, they were roaring hot and flames were reaching the ceiling. The instructor then closed the metal doors to the room and students watched the pallets continue to burn, as oxygen diminished. Smoke and other hot, un-burned gases filled the ceiling, as everyone crouched and watched the hot thermal layer descend. The pallet fire, now starved for oxygen, turned a dull, orange color, while flames lazily danced upwards.

Students were instructed to remove a glove at floor level, exposing their hand and then raising it slowly into the thermal layer ... reaching a point just above their heads where raising their hand any more would seriously burn it.

Gases at the top of the ceiling were reaching 1000 °C and the thermal layer boundary was at about 500 °C. Flames were rolling across the ceiling and the instructor shot a 1-second blast of water from the fire hose into the ceiling, which immediately turned to steam and expanded (1700 times the water volume), having a cooling effect on the hot gases and flames, which reduced in size. He did this one more time, nearly extinguishing the flames ... then took a quick shot of water into the pallets ... which pretty much finished off the fire. In an instant, using little more than five gallons of water, the fire (and super-heated gases) were surpressed.

North Cedar Crew: L-R: Dave Gilbert, Colin Jones, Corey Maxwell and Blake "hound dog" Hunter. Picture taken before exercises on Saturday. (We were hoping for more pictures, but as the exercises began, there was little time for picture-taking). _{Randsco Newswire}

Next was a demonstration of hydraulic ventilation, as 2 doors were opened and a 50-degree water stream of 95-gallon-per-minute water out of an 1.5-inch hose was directed out of the building. Within seconds, the room was clear of smoke. Amazing.

The rest of the day was spent in various evolutions, as the four 5-man teams were run through a variety of scenarios: fighting 2nd story fires; sub-level fires, ground-level fires; searches for victims during firefighting efforts; ventilation of smoke-filled rooms and initial fire size-ups, radio communications, door-entries and hose-advancement techniques.

Each firefighter had turns as nozzleman, door entry & backup, hose-advancement crew, and search/rescue. They ran through several 2216 psi bottle of compressed air and got to experience real-life fire/smoke/heat/zero-visibility conditions. By the end of the day, they were all sore from countless advances of hose up/down and around/into/out-of the building. They looked and smelled like charcoal briquettes.

All-in-all it was a great learning exercise. Many made friends with other firefighters from several other Vancouver Island locations (Mill Bay and Colwood Fire Departments were two other Vancouver Island crews that were there).