Building Fires, Car Fires and My Final!

I know its been a while since I have updated but with it being the holiday and me having to study my brains out for my final I haven't really had time to update this. First, the big news is I passed my written final! This means I am one step closer to finally being a certified firefighter! I will admit, with as much as I studied it was a really hard test and I was sweating bullets! We had to wait about an hour after taking the test to get the results and I was so nervous because I didn't think I passed. There were questions on the test I have never seen before! Once we got the results and I saw that I passed I was so relived! I couldn't wait to go home to tell the guys at the firehouse! Now I just have to get through HAZMAT Ops and my practicals which are the hands on testing to receive my cert.

Before I took my final we had a class all about structural burns, car fires, dumpster fires and advancing hose lines to put them out. It was a really really long day for me since the night before we were really busy with calls all night since we had heavy flooding in our area and then I was woken up at 4:30am for a house fire down the street. Needless to say I was exhausted to start the day. We started our day in the tower and had to use a stand pipe for a water supply. With standpipes they are inside a building so you hook up the hose one floor below the fire and then take the hose line one floor above the fire so gravity will work with you when you are dragging the charged hose into the room. We used a propane fire simulator and use the O,T and Z water patterns to put the fire out. We also practiced hydraulic ventilation to get the heat out of the room. Working with a charged hose line is a lot harder than it looks and it takes a lot of energy. We got the work done though. Later in the afternoon we practiced putting out car fires and dumpster fires. For the car fire we practiced in teams and used charge hose lines to approach the fire. We start by spraying water at the ground so that it reflects off the ground and under the car. We do this as we approach the car. We then opened the truck and put out the fire there and then moved to the compartment of  the car. While doing this we also want to cool the tires. Then we put out the fire in the engine. Each member of the team had a job. One member controlled the nozzle, one backed up the nozzle person, another supported the hose line and then the last guy had the halligan bar and used it to pry open the hood and trunk. When approaching a car fire the biggest thing you want to remember is always approach from the side and never from the front or back in case the bumpers fly off. With dumpster fires it is the same kind of concept only you just fill the dumpster with water since its only trash. You want to cool the sides of the dumpster and cool the inside as well. Now that we are done our final and all of our classroom work it is time to move on to HAZMAT ops. We start Tuesday!

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Classroom Work

Last night we did a lot of classroom work on wildfire awarness, arson awarness and salvage and overhaul. Wildfires are your typical forest fires or brush fires. Although I will probably never see a real forest fire in the area where I volunteer its still something we need to know about. We learned different ways to read a wildfire and how we can stop them from spreading. Arson awarness and salvage and overhaul go hand in hand. We need to be aware of what is around us while we are fighting a fire and we need to be sure that we are careful with how we do things so that we do not disturb any evidence. Arson is very common these days so we need to know what signs to look for when we approach a fire. Things like broken windows, blocked roadways, people leaving the home quickly and even people in the general public talking about what they saw. Any of this evidence needs to be presented to our fire marshal. Salvage and overhaul is the process of cleaning up after the fire. We need to save any of the homeowner's possesions and protect what has not been damaged in the fire. We also need to still be aware of any signs of arson or any other evidence that may determine the cause of the fire. While performing overhaul we also need to keep an eye out on the structure. If the structure has become weakened by the fire we cannot perform over overhaul tasks. Its a lot of important things to remember but its stuff we need to do to protect people's property and help determine the cause of a fire.

Advancing Hose Lines

Ok. So I have been a little behind on my updating so I have some catching up to do. The last few classes have been all about advancing hose lines. We started out last Thursday night by hooking up hose lines to the engine and charging them which basically means just turning on the water. We used fog nozzles and sprayed the water into the creek just to get used to handling the hoses with our teams. Then we practiced walking with charged hose lines which can be difficult because gets really heavy. On Sunday we did more work with charged hose lines. We practiced moving the hose lines through a building and up and down stairs. Moving down a hallway is easy since it is a straight shot but moving up and down the stairs requires a lot of energy. Dragging 100 plus feet of hose into a building is hard work but climbing a ladder with full gear and a hose line is even harder. We practiced two methods. We did indirect firefighter which means we climb to the top of the ladder and rather than going into the building we stay at the top of the ladder and fight the fire from the outside. We learned different ways to control the hose on a ladder so that we don't injure ourselves. After doing this a few times we practiced direct firefighting. This is when you climb the ladder and actually climb through the window and fight the fire from the inside of the building. This requires a lot of strength to do. Now our class is fully trained with hose lines. 

                                                    Advancing hose lines in the dark

                                                          Hose lines on a ladder

                                                         Hose lines inside a structure

Packing Hose

Last night in class we learned more about hoses and how to pack them. We did a little bit of lecture inside and then went outside to pack hose onto the trucks. We learned how to pack 5 inch in a flat pack on the bed of the truck. We use this so that when we have to hit the hydrant with the 5 inch you can wrap it aorund the hydrant and when the driver starts to go the hose will fall off the truck in a nice flat form. This is good so that when you charge the line with the hydrant you don't get any kinks in the line. We also learned how to pack 2 1/2 inch. We practiced packing with two techniques. The minute man pack and the triple pack. They are both used with the same concept as the 5 inch. Get the hose off of the truck without it getting tangled and causing a kink in the hose. Depending on your department eveyone pack hose differently but they are all used for the same thing. I have packed hose with my company several times during trainings. Thursday in class we will be outside again and our written final is only 2 weeks away! I have a lot of studying to do!

Water Supply, Hose Lines and Ventilation

Sunday was a very long and educational class for us. We had a full 8 hour class and we worked the whole time. We started the day learning how to use hard suction. This is used when you don't have a hydrant available and you need to supply your truck with water. We used the Neshaminy creek and connected a hard suction supply to the truck. We learned different techniques on how to hook up the hard suction and the different tools you can use to do this. We also learned about the different types of hose lines, hose tools and connections you can use for a hose line. The truck we practiced on carried 1000 feet of 5 inch since they are from a rural area and sometimes they need a large amount of hose to connect to a hydrant. Once we were done learned about hoses we moved on to ventilation. I have to admit this looks a lot easier than it is. We used a mock roof and have to cut a square to simulate ventilation. We used a roof ladder and worked in pairs. When it was time for my partner and I to ventilate we grabbed out tools and clibed the ladder. I drew out a square using a pick head axe and my partner used a halligan bar to create a foot hold for me. Once I was in position I used the axe to begin to cut through the wood. After a few chops I was already tired. I even thought at one point that I wouldn't be able to finish the cuts. My helmet kept slipping off my head and knocking my glasses off and it was making it very difficult. Once I got adjusted I but up some motivation and went at it. I finished my section and then it was my partners turn. I helped support her on the ladder and she completed her ventilation. The guys on our class cheered us on which felt awesome. We were both shaking and exhausted when we were done. Its been about 3 days since we did this and my hand is still really sore. Its a lot of work to cut through that wood! After lunch we started work on tanker trucks. The are another water supply used in firefighting. We set up a port-a-pond and dumped water into it as a water supply. This is also used when hydrants cannot be used. We set up another hard suction to the truck and placed it in the pond. Where our station is we will probably never see a tanker truck since we have so many hydrants but its still good to know how they work. We also did a little work with hydrants and how to operate them. Then came the fun part of the day. Sprinklers! We had to shut down a sprinkler system using wood chocks and wedging them between the sprinkler to stop the water flow. Needless to say it was very very very wet. We used a ladder to climb to the sprinler head and the water was flowing out of it. With the water running I placed the wedges in and stopped the water flow. My gear was soaked. Luckily for us though it was a nice day out because the water we used was freezing. Again this is something we will probably never have to use but it was a lot of fun! It was a long day on Sunday but we learned a lot. The next few classes we will be learning more about hoses and water supply. Just a little side note, it took my gear two days to dry out and my gloves are still wet!

                                                                    Ventilation

                                                      Supporting my partner Christina

                                                       Tanker truck with a port-a-pond

                                                     Shutting down a sprinkler system

                              My team after we completed out sprinkler system shut down

Water Supply and Hose Lines

So last night we were supposed to be outside practicing ventilation but due to weather conditions we had to stay inside. It was too cold and too rainy and because the ply wood was out in the rain all day it was too dangerous to try to cut through it. So instead we did a lecture class on water supply and hose lines. We learned how to operate a fire hydrant and we learned about the different types of hose lines, hose tools and adapters. We didn't go too much into detail with hose lines because we are going to be doing more with them on Sunday at the fire grounds. A lot of what we need to do is better taught with hands on. There will be more to talk about after class on Sunday. We are going to be very busy and we are going to get very wet working with sprinkler systems. I hope its going to be warm Sunday!

Ventilation

Last night in class we learned all about ventilation. Ventilation is used to release heat, smoke and fire build up in a room. If used properly, this can aid in search and rescue efforts and it can help crews to put out the fire quicker. Last night was a lecture class. We learned about all different types of ventilation. We learned about horizontal and vertical ventilation, hydraulic, and positive and negative pressure. The biggest things to remember with ventilation is to look for signs of potential flashover and backdrafts. If you see signs of backdraft, which include blackened windows, smoke puffs coming from the building or smoke being sucked back into the building, or smoke seeping from cracks, you need to be especially careful. If you break a window and feed the room oxygen it will cause and explosion and ignite the room. It is also important to know where you are going to ventilate. Depending on where the fire is, you will begin ventilation efforts. Every time of ventilation has a different use. Hydraulic ventilation for instance is when you use a hose line and open the nozzle to a fog stream. If you stand about two feet from a window and open the house line the water will push all of the heat, smoke and gases out of the room. It creates a sort of vacuum and will push all the contents out. The downside with this though is it uses up water, it could cause a ice hazard if it is below freezing outside, it will cause water damage to the property and it keeps firefighters in the building to preform the task. Although it does have negative effects it has proved to be very effective in ventilation. Positive and negative pressure involve fans. With negative pressure you place a fan in a doorway or window facing outside and when you turn it on it pulls all the smoke and gases out of the room. Positive pressure is placing a fan outside of the building facing the door and blowing air into the building making sure the air reaches all of the door frame. This is known as a cone of air. This will push all of the smoke and gases out from where the fire is located. If used too soon it could spread the fire so you need to be mindful of this. Another important type of ventilation is roof ventilation. This falls under verticle ventilation. You will be cutting a square in the roof above the fire to help release the smoke and gases built up inside of the room. You can use power tools or axes to accomplish this depending on what material the roof is made of. You want to always work in teams and always have a least two ways to get off of the roof in case of an emergency. Thursday night in class we will be doing hands on ventilation with a mock roof. Now that we have the lecture part under our belts, we will get to used what we learned on the fire ground at school! It is supposed to rain/snow Thursday night so it should be fun!