Fire Fighter 1: The Campfire
In the last third of our course we started our much anticipated live burns. The first was car fires which I will get into at some other time, second was "the campfire".
On the fire ground of the Orange County Fire Training Center there is a burn building called "the Taxpayer". It's a three story house built out of fire resistive concrete and able to withstand extreme temperatures. Our campfire was to be held in the first floor. Everyone was excited and you tell there was a little apprehension in the air.
The entire class including instructors, were dress in full turnout gear and masked up. This was going to be our first introduction to what fire fighters call "the beast". Our instructor asked to us to file into the first floor of the Taxpayer and form a semi circle from one corner of the room to the other. In the middle of the semi circle, 10 ft away against the far wall was a massive pile of hay and wooden pallets. Once everyone was in all the windows and doors were closed tight.
Our instructors fired up a red road flare and touched it to the piles of hay. The fire started licking up the side of the pile and pretty soon we had a good fire going. As we all watched the smoke started spreading out across the ceiling and we were given the command to go on air. Pretty soon all we could hear was the familiar Darth Vader clicking of the low pressure regulators and the roar of the growing inferno in front of us.
As we were kneeling it took a minute for the smoke strata to reach our head height and pretty soon we could see nothing. We were told to lie prone on the floor. Ahhh, I could see again but not for long. Within minutes I could see nothing. I couldn't even see the fire, just an vague orange glow through the smoke. We were told to get to our knees once more and suddenly I could see how big the fire had become!
The flames were spreading out 10 feet in every direction across the concrete ceiling. I could now feel the heat prickling through my turnouts. The air in our SCBA's (air packs) was getting hot and I could smell burning rubber. This was coming from the hoses on our packs starting to deprecate in the heat. At this point one of the instructors shouted that it was getting pretty hot where he was. The heat was like an impenetrable wall that was all around you. With huge relief we were given the order to clear out. We crawled out of the oven and unclipped our masks. All the metal clips and parts of my gear were untouchable they were so hot.
On asking what the temperature was in the room, our instructor casually says "About 1000 degrees"... wait, WHAT?! That's in Fahrenheit, so it's about 537 in Celsius. Considering that I usually cook stuff at 350 degrees F in my oven, I was absolutely amazed we didn't get cooked. It was an incredible experience and one that I hope we can do again one day.
On the fire ground of the Orange County Fire Training Center there is a burn building called "the Taxpayer". It's a three story house built out of fire resistive concrete and able to withstand extreme temperatures. Our campfire was to be held in the first floor. Everyone was excited and you tell there was a little apprehension in the air.
The entire class including instructors, were dress in full turnout gear and masked up. This was going to be our first introduction to what fire fighters call "the beast". Our instructor asked to us to file into the first floor of the Taxpayer and form a semi circle from one corner of the room to the other. In the middle of the semi circle, 10 ft away against the far wall was a massive pile of hay and wooden pallets. Once everyone was in all the windows and doors were closed tight.
Our instructors fired up a red road flare and touched it to the piles of hay. The fire started licking up the side of the pile and pretty soon we had a good fire going. As we all watched the smoke started spreading out across the ceiling and we were given the command to go on air. Pretty soon all we could hear was the familiar Darth Vader clicking of the low pressure regulators and the roar of the growing inferno in front of us.
As we were kneeling it took a minute for the smoke strata to reach our head height and pretty soon we could see nothing. We were told to lie prone on the floor. Ahhh, I could see again but not for long. Within minutes I could see nothing. I couldn't even see the fire, just an vague orange glow through the smoke. We were told to get to our knees once more and suddenly I could see how big the fire had become!
The flames were spreading out 10 feet in every direction across the concrete ceiling. I could now feel the heat prickling through my turnouts. The air in our SCBA's (air packs) was getting hot and I could smell burning rubber. This was coming from the hoses on our packs starting to deprecate in the heat. At this point one of the instructors shouted that it was getting pretty hot where he was. The heat was like an impenetrable wall that was all around you. With huge relief we were given the order to clear out. We crawled out of the oven and unclipped our masks. All the metal clips and parts of my gear were untouchable they were so hot.
On asking what the temperature was in the room, our instructor casually says "About 1000 degrees"... wait, WHAT?! That's in Fahrenheit, so it's about 537 in Celsius. Considering that I usually cook stuff at 350 degrees F in my oven, I was absolutely amazed we didn't get cooked. It was an incredible experience and one that I hope we can do again one day.
posted by Alex Charalambides | 11:06 AM
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