A week or two ago, a neighboring company had a house fire in their district, and we got called out to operate a fill site. Here's what that means.
Living in town, you have fire hydrants at regular intervals. In cities, they're probably every 100 yards or so. In the suburbs, they may be a few hundred yards apart, but still close enough that a fire engine can connect to them and get to your house. But out in the country, where houses are spread pretty far apart, it's not practical to put in hydrants (if it's even possible, as some farmhouses aren't even on a water main; they get well water).
But fires still happen out there, and we still need to put them out. So we have tanker shuttles. Tankers, as you'd expect, carry large tanks (from maybe 3000 gallons up to 7-8000 or larger in some cases), and haul water from where water is, to where it's needed.
So that night, we took our engine to a pond that had a "dry hydrant" (a hydrant connection that could be used to suction water out of the pond), where we used the engine's pump to load the water onto tankers who would then go to the house fire. In our case, we were pumping out of one 5" (which was then split into 2 3" hoses) and 2 more 3" hoses, which we would then connect to 1 or 2 tankers (2 3" lines per tanker). Doing this, we filled 12 tankers over the course of maybe 3 hours, which was actually a fairly light load, as we were idle for a good bit of that time.
Not the most glamorous work, but just as essential as putting water on a fire is getting the water to the fire in the first place.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Cutting a Car Apart
The fun continues: last night, we cut two cars apart.
One thing that often happens in vehicle accidents is that stuff gets bent around in ways that make it hard or impossible to get victims out. Even in relatively simple accidents, doors can get bent and jammed, making them barriers to getting to patients.
But we have Tools (tm)!
One is a surprisingly simple little gizmo that looks like a Bic pen. When you press it against the corner of a window, a spring loads, then releases, striking the window hard enough to shatter it. This works on all car windows except the windshield, which is apparently more resistant to that type of thing.
For windshields, then, we have a saw with a pointed end that, when swung, makes nice little holes in windshields. The saw then cuts through the glass, and does so much more easily than, say, a handsaw cuts through wood. (We also played with taking out a windshield with an axe, but you tend to not do that with a patient sitting in the front seat.)
Then there are spreaders. These are tools with arms that come to a point, that when inserted into a door opening, can bend a car door in half, or can be reversed to grab and bend the edge of a door. We also used it over the top of the door's sill to pop the door edge out to make more room for inserting them.
And cutters. Big hook-shaped scissors that can cut through a door post in a few seconds. And rams, that when positioned properly on both sides of the car, can roll back the dashboard like tinfoil.
All of these tools are powered by a hydraulic power plant (think: portable electric generator, only with fluid tubes coming off, instead of wires), making these tools fairly portable around an accident scene (i.e. not limited to being connected to rescue apparatus). And the tools themselves are fairly hefty, maybe 20-30lbs each for the smaller ones, and 50lbs or more (requiring two people) for the larger ones.
For the most part, while the class was good fun, it was mostly an awareness-level class; we'll be taking a VRT (vehicle rescue technician) class at some point in the future, to get better at it all. Still, to remove the windows, doors, roof and dash of two cars in fairly short order was pretty impressive stuff.
One thing that often happens in vehicle accidents is that stuff gets bent around in ways that make it hard or impossible to get victims out. Even in relatively simple accidents, doors can get bent and jammed, making them barriers to getting to patients.
But we have Tools (tm)!
One is a surprisingly simple little gizmo that looks like a Bic pen. When you press it against the corner of a window, a spring loads, then releases, striking the window hard enough to shatter it. This works on all car windows except the windshield, which is apparently more resistant to that type of thing.
For windshields, then, we have a saw with a pointed end that, when swung, makes nice little holes in windshields. The saw then cuts through the glass, and does so much more easily than, say, a handsaw cuts through wood. (We also played with taking out a windshield with an axe, but you tend to not do that with a patient sitting in the front seat.)
Then there are spreaders. These are tools with arms that come to a point, that when inserted into a door opening, can bend a car door in half, or can be reversed to grab and bend the edge of a door. We also used it over the top of the door's sill to pop the door edge out to make more room for inserting them.
And cutters. Big hook-shaped scissors that can cut through a door post in a few seconds. And rams, that when positioned properly on both sides of the car, can roll back the dashboard like tinfoil.
All of these tools are powered by a hydraulic power plant (think: portable electric generator, only with fluid tubes coming off, instead of wires), making these tools fairly portable around an accident scene (i.e. not limited to being connected to rescue apparatus). And the tools themselves are fairly hefty, maybe 20-30lbs each for the smaller ones, and 50lbs or more (requiring two people) for the larger ones.
For the most part, while the class was good fun, it was mostly an awareness-level class; we'll be taking a VRT (vehicle rescue technician) class at some point in the future, to get better at it all. Still, to remove the windows, doors, roof and dash of two cars in fairly short order was pretty impressive stuff.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Exterior Burn Session, and a Call
Now we're getting to the meat of the Essentials course, putting the stuff we've learned into practice. Last night, we went to our local traning center, and "put out" some training fires.
First up was a simulated car fire. The simulator is a metal car-like shell with propane burners. When the gas is turned on, the car lights up nice and hot, (i.e. from the air truck parked at least 100ft away, the heat was like a campfire). So we got our gear and airpacks on, and first time through, tackled a fire in the engine compartment. I was on nozzle twice, backup 3 times and Halligan bar (think: heavy steel pry bar, used in real life to pry the hood open) once.
Next up was a propane tank fire. The simulator there acted like a pipe leading out of the tank had ruptured and was enclosing the tank itself in flames. On the simulator, as in real life, you use fog nozzles to push the flames back, and shut off the emergency valve. I was on nozzle twice, backup once or twice, and valve once. Now, of course, when the nozzle guys are pushing the flames back, the valve guy is crawling through the water stream to get to the valve, so we all got quite wet.
Lastly, we did the car again, but this time with two hoselines, and the whole car was involved: engine, passenger compartment, truck, and a simulated fuel spill under the rear of the car. I was on nozzle first, working from the rear of the car up to the front. Of course, with teams on both sides, it was really easy for each nozzle guy to be accidentally hitting the other guy with his stream; more soakage.
Then the fun happened.
My second run, I was backing up a little guy, keeping my hand on his shoulder to counteract the force from the nozzle. So far, so good, but as we got up to the passenger compartment, all of a sudden, he starts moving quickly to the front of the car, and loses the nozzle. I'm about 8ft back of the nozzle, holding on to the now-flailing hose, trying to get it under control. Fortunately, the hose swung hard to the side, and I managed to get it kinked, allowing me to grab the nozzle, get it under control, and shut it down. Not what was supposed to happen.
All in all, the evening was good fun, (even the loose hose, after the fact), and I learned a good bit about fire attack. It was pretty impressive that what was somewhat warm w/o gear at 100ft wasn't a problem at all only 5ft away with gear. Add to that a post-session conversation with my chief (who was there acting as the burn tech), and it was well worth the evening.
Then we head back to station, hang our soaked gear up and go home, only to get paged about 10 mins after I crawled into bed, with a vehicle accident. Having to reassemble my wet gear, I missed E2, and rode out on Squad, only to watch others clean up, and return to station.
First up was a simulated car fire. The simulator is a metal car-like shell with propane burners. When the gas is turned on, the car lights up nice and hot, (i.e. from the air truck parked at least 100ft away, the heat was like a campfire). So we got our gear and airpacks on, and first time through, tackled a fire in the engine compartment. I was on nozzle twice, backup 3 times and Halligan bar (think: heavy steel pry bar, used in real life to pry the hood open) once.
Next up was a propane tank fire. The simulator there acted like a pipe leading out of the tank had ruptured and was enclosing the tank itself in flames. On the simulator, as in real life, you use fog nozzles to push the flames back, and shut off the emergency valve. I was on nozzle twice, backup once or twice, and valve once. Now, of course, when the nozzle guys are pushing the flames back, the valve guy is crawling through the water stream to get to the valve, so we all got quite wet.
Lastly, we did the car again, but this time with two hoselines, and the whole car was involved: engine, passenger compartment, truck, and a simulated fuel spill under the rear of the car. I was on nozzle first, working from the rear of the car up to the front. Of course, with teams on both sides, it was really easy for each nozzle guy to be accidentally hitting the other guy with his stream; more soakage.
Then the fun happened.
My second run, I was backing up a little guy, keeping my hand on his shoulder to counteract the force from the nozzle. So far, so good, but as we got up to the passenger compartment, all of a sudden, he starts moving quickly to the front of the car, and loses the nozzle. I'm about 8ft back of the nozzle, holding on to the now-flailing hose, trying to get it under control. Fortunately, the hose swung hard to the side, and I managed to get it kinked, allowing me to grab the nozzle, get it under control, and shut it down. Not what was supposed to happen.
All in all, the evening was good fun, (even the loose hose, after the fact), and I learned a good bit about fire attack. It was pretty impressive that what was somewhat warm w/o gear at 100ft wasn't a problem at all only 5ft away with gear. Add to that a post-session conversation with my chief (who was there acting as the burn tech), and it was well worth the evening.
Then we head back to station, hang our soaked gear up and go home, only to get paged about 10 mins after I crawled into bed, with a vehicle accident. Having to reassemble my wet gear, I missed E2, and rode out on Squad, only to watch others clean up, and return to station.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Ventilation
Inside a burning building is a dangerous place to be, for a variety of reasons: 1) heat, 2) smoke, 3) dangerous gases, like carbon monoxide (CO). It's important, also for a variety of reasons, to get all three out of the building.
First situation: food in an oven. This produces lots of smoke, but is often easily contained and extinguished. Still, the air will be filled with smoke. To help the homeowner, we set up a fan in a doorway and push outside air in, to clear the air. That's called PPV, or positive pressure ventilation. You put a PPV fan outside the door, such that the cone of air covers the door, and open a window in the smoke-filled room. (If you put the fan inside the door, some/much of the air you were pulling in at ground level would come right back out the door above the fan.) Assuming that the smoke has gone throughout the house, you open a window in one room at a time until the air is clear throughout the house.
Second situation: building on fire. Heat builds up, making the interior much more dangerous. Heat from the fire (as well as the smoke it gives off) rises, and collects on the upper floors, endangering occupants. While some FFs (from the engine company, often) prepare hose lines to go in and extinguish the fire, other FFs (from a truck company, often) can go onto the roof and cut holes to allow the hot gases to escape. This clears the air inside, and makes it safer for both occupants still in the building as well as the engine co. FFs about to go in. (In other situations, a fire can be "self-ventilating", meaning it burns through either a roof or wall, or breaks a window, allowing the heat/smoke/gases to vent on their own.)
Third situation: building no longer on fire. Even though the fire's out, there's still heat, smoke and gases inside. FFs need to go through the building, remove smoldering materials, and ensure that all hot spots are gone (so they don't reignite in the near future). To do that work, they either continue to wear airpacks, or completely ventilate the building so that it's safe to breath ambient air while they work.
Fourth situation: gas leaks, CO alarms, etc. These situations also require ventilation, in addition to figuring out and dealing with the source of the dangerous gas. FFs have hand-held meters to assist in determining the source of gas and in knowing whether ventilation is successful. (As a side note, sometimes the source is obvious; our instructor told us about a CO call, fortunately not involving fatalities, where residents of a row home decided to roast a pig in their basement. Not good.)
So we ventilate, to make things safer for occupants and FFs, during and after a fire, and to assist occupants in putting things back to normal.
First situation: food in an oven. This produces lots of smoke, but is often easily contained and extinguished. Still, the air will be filled with smoke. To help the homeowner, we set up a fan in a doorway and push outside air in, to clear the air. That's called PPV, or positive pressure ventilation. You put a PPV fan outside the door, such that the cone of air covers the door, and open a window in the smoke-filled room. (If you put the fan inside the door, some/much of the air you were pulling in at ground level would come right back out the door above the fan.) Assuming that the smoke has gone throughout the house, you open a window in one room at a time until the air is clear throughout the house.
Second situation: building on fire. Heat builds up, making the interior much more dangerous. Heat from the fire (as well as the smoke it gives off) rises, and collects on the upper floors, endangering occupants. While some FFs (from the engine company, often) prepare hose lines to go in and extinguish the fire, other FFs (from a truck company, often) can go onto the roof and cut holes to allow the hot gases to escape. This clears the air inside, and makes it safer for both occupants still in the building as well as the engine co. FFs about to go in. (In other situations, a fire can be "self-ventilating", meaning it burns through either a roof or wall, or breaks a window, allowing the heat/smoke/gases to vent on their own.)
Third situation: building no longer on fire. Even though the fire's out, there's still heat, smoke and gases inside. FFs need to go through the building, remove smoldering materials, and ensure that all hot spots are gone (so they don't reignite in the near future). To do that work, they either continue to wear airpacks, or completely ventilate the building so that it's safe to breath ambient air while they work.
Fourth situation: gas leaks, CO alarms, etc. These situations also require ventilation, in addition to figuring out and dealing with the source of the dangerous gas. FFs have hand-held meters to assist in determining the source of gas and in knowing whether ventilation is successful. (As a side note, sometimes the source is obvious; our instructor told us about a CO call, fortunately not involving fatalities, where residents of a row home decided to roast a pig in their basement. Not good.)
So we ventilate, to make things safer for occupants and FFs, during and after a fire, and to assist occupants in putting things back to normal.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Air Packs
Last night's training involved donning air packs.
There are a few steps involved in putting an airpack on. Some of these can be done in different orders, but my sequence was:
1) Put on the pack. It's like a backpack, with the air cylinder fastened to the frame. It's got a waist strap, too, so that the 30-40lbs of weight rest on your hips, not your shoulders.
2) Put on the face piece. This has webbing that wraps around your head, and 4 straps that you tighten to secure it to your head, and create an air-tight seal.
3) Attach the regulator to the face piece. In our case (MSA), the regulator starts off attached to a clip on the waist belt, and you unclip it from that and clip it into an opening in front of your mouth, (on the outside of the face piece). At this point, you should check your seal by breathing in; since you haven't opened the air yet, you should get nothing coming into the face piece around the outside.
4) Now, (before you run out of breath), turn on the air cylinder by reaching around the bottom-right side of the backpack and opening the valve. If you're mask is tight enough, air flows into the face piece when you breathe in, but doesn't leak out the sides. (These masks are positive-pressure, meaning it provides just slightly more than 1 atmosphere of pressure, rather than requiring you to pull air in via lung effort; this makes it safer in the case of a mask leak, meaning smoke won't come in when you breathe in.)
5) Now that you're breathing air, pull your hood up over the face piece, and put on your helmet and gloves. Done.
Now, do all that in 60 seconds. Yeah, it's about as hard as it sounds. The point of doing it timed is to make sure you're comfortable doing it, and can be ready in an emergency situation. Like the 60 seconds to put on gear, in real life, you'll most likely have more time than that, but you need to be comfortable with what you're doing.
Now, the frustration. I'd never touched an airpack before. Apparently, I was one of two or three in the class in that situation, and it just didn't occur to the instructor to ask. So I figured most of the above out by myself. Several things tripped me up along the way, but I worked them out as I went; the pressure was that each attempt was timed, and I didn't get to work my way fully through the process before we were told (as a class) to start over.
On the positive side, each attempt got easier, and on the try where I forgot my hood, I got everything else on in the 60 seconds, with a bit of fumbling around. So I'm pretty confident that I'll get it worked out for next class. And we've got a night off next week to be able to practice at our station as well. Just one more thing to master.
There are a few steps involved in putting an airpack on. Some of these can be done in different orders, but my sequence was:
1) Put on the pack. It's like a backpack, with the air cylinder fastened to the frame. It's got a waist strap, too, so that the 30-40lbs of weight rest on your hips, not your shoulders.
2) Put on the face piece. This has webbing that wraps around your head, and 4 straps that you tighten to secure it to your head, and create an air-tight seal.
3) Attach the regulator to the face piece. In our case (MSA), the regulator starts off attached to a clip on the waist belt, and you unclip it from that and clip it into an opening in front of your mouth, (on the outside of the face piece). At this point, you should check your seal by breathing in; since you haven't opened the air yet, you should get nothing coming into the face piece around the outside.
4) Now, (before you run out of breath), turn on the air cylinder by reaching around the bottom-right side of the backpack and opening the valve. If you're mask is tight enough, air flows into the face piece when you breathe in, but doesn't leak out the sides. (These masks are positive-pressure, meaning it provides just slightly more than 1 atmosphere of pressure, rather than requiring you to pull air in via lung effort; this makes it safer in the case of a mask leak, meaning smoke won't come in when you breathe in.)
5) Now that you're breathing air, pull your hood up over the face piece, and put on your helmet and gloves. Done.
Now, do all that in 60 seconds. Yeah, it's about as hard as it sounds. The point of doing it timed is to make sure you're comfortable doing it, and can be ready in an emergency situation. Like the 60 seconds to put on gear, in real life, you'll most likely have more time than that, but you need to be comfortable with what you're doing.
Now, the frustration. I'd never touched an airpack before. Apparently, I was one of two or three in the class in that situation, and it just didn't occur to the instructor to ask. So I figured most of the above out by myself. Several things tripped me up along the way, but I worked them out as I went; the pressure was that each attempt was timed, and I didn't get to work my way fully through the process before we were told (as a class) to start over.
On the positive side, each attempt got easier, and on the try where I forgot my hood, I got everything else on in the 60 seconds, with a bit of fumbling around. So I'm pretty confident that I'll get it worked out for next class. And we've got a night off next week to be able to practice at our station as well. Just one more thing to master.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Two Calls At Once, and a Fire
So after a couple of sparse weeks, Saturday we get not just one but two vehicle accidents at once. Page comes in, I get to station, get suited up, E2 is full so I'm first on Squad. As soon as I get on, call comes over the radio for an ambulance, our E1 and another company's engine to a 2nd accident.
At this point, we're short a driver, so I and Squad's driver head over to E1, while another driver arrives for Squad, and the rest of the FF's in station split up for the two calls. Everything got staffed, and both accidents turned out to be easily handled and fairly minor.
Then Saturday evening, we get called for a trash fire. Apparently, folks at a local church had a cookout, and the coals weren't cold enough when they emptied them into the dumpster. The trash line took care of it easily, and I got to pack the hose away when it was over. (So far, for the record, that was the closest I've come to actually seeing flame in my illustrious, 4-month firefighting career...)
At this point, we're short a driver, so I and Squad's driver head over to E1, while another driver arrives for Squad, and the rest of the FF's in station split up for the two calls. Everything got staffed, and both accidents turned out to be easily handled and fairly minor.
Then Saturday evening, we get called for a trash fire. Apparently, folks at a local church had a cookout, and the coals weren't cold enough when they emptied them into the dumpster. The trash line took care of it easily, and I got to pack the hose away when it was over. (So far, for the record, that was the closest I've come to actually seeing flame in my illustrious, 4-month firefighting career...)
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Forced Entry
Last night's class was quite interesting. Say there's a fire, or at least the threat of one (i.e. an automatic alarm is going off). Say the door's locked, (whether it's a business or residence), and nobody's there to open it for you. The class was all about forced entry, i.e. how to get past obstacles to either investigate or extinguish a fire.
Gone are the days of taking an axe and chopping a door down. Not to say that that wouldn't work, but there are much better ways of getting in, that do much less damage. And minimizing damage is certainly a concern. The basic ways of forcing entry are: 1) conventional (prying the door open), 2) through the lock (pulling the key cylinder out and messing with the mechanism), and 3) power tools (cutting holes in garage doors with saws, etc.)
And no, it wasn't lost on anyone that, as one guy said, "Hey, they're training us to be criminals". We're needing to know how to do what would be illegal in other circumstances. We're dealing with an "arms race"; making buildings more secure against criminals makes them less accessible when *WE* need to get in. Then criminals figure out how to get in, and we need to learn more advanced methods.
Gone are the days of taking an axe and chopping a door down. Not to say that that wouldn't work, but there are much better ways of getting in, that do much less damage. And minimizing damage is certainly a concern. The basic ways of forcing entry are: 1) conventional (prying the door open), 2) through the lock (pulling the key cylinder out and messing with the mechanism), and 3) power tools (cutting holes in garage doors with saws, etc.)
And no, it wasn't lost on anyone that, as one guy said, "Hey, they're training us to be criminals". We're needing to know how to do what would be illegal in other circumstances. We're dealing with an "arms race"; making buildings more secure against criminals makes them less accessible when *WE* need to get in. Then criminals figure out how to get in, and we need to learn more advanced methods.
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