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.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Training Night 9/16
Got the week off from Essentials, so I got to go to my own company's training night. We put hard-sleeve hose into a creek to draft into the engine, resting the hose on a roof ladder, and using a rope from the other side of the creek to guide it into place, then tie it off.
We then played with various nozzles, on 1.75" and 2.5" hoses. The nozzles affect how much kick you get when flowing water on a fire; the older nozzles produce a lot more backward force than the newer ones, and the old brass nozzle (that they used back around WWII, and keep around as a relic) takes 4 guys to wrestle.
It's easy to let a hose get away from you. I was on the nozzle at one point, and my backup guy wasn't paying attention to what I was doing, and I ended up coming close to losing control of it (and ended up spraying the guys on an adjacent hose, too). One good thing about the way nozzles work is that if your hand is on the bail, having the hose push back will naturally shut off the water; that would have happened for us had the hose slipped back another foot or so.
There are ways for one guy to flow water, though, by looping the hose around such that the top of the loop sits on the end about 2-3ft back from the nozzle, then put your feet/knees on the top hose, on either side of the nozzle. You do have to shut down the hose to move it very far, but when you need to do it, it's possible to do.
After shutting everything down and packing up the engine(s), we took the drafting engine to a hydrant and flushed out the pump; the creek wasn't that deep, and we ended up pulling a lot of mud through at various times. Our engines can sure flow the water.
All in all, this was a welcome break from Essentials, especially as I got to work with more of the guys from my own company.
We then played with various nozzles, on 1.75" and 2.5" hoses. The nozzles affect how much kick you get when flowing water on a fire; the older nozzles produce a lot more backward force than the newer ones, and the old brass nozzle (that they used back around WWII, and keep around as a relic) takes 4 guys to wrestle.
It's easy to let a hose get away from you. I was on the nozzle at one point, and my backup guy wasn't paying attention to what I was doing, and I ended up coming close to losing control of it (and ended up spraying the guys on an adjacent hose, too). One good thing about the way nozzles work is that if your hand is on the bail, having the hose push back will naturally shut off the water; that would have happened for us had the hose slipped back another foot or so.
There are ways for one guy to flow water, though, by looping the hose around such that the top of the loop sits on the end about 2-3ft back from the nozzle, then put your feet/knees on the top hose, on either side of the nozzle. You do have to shut down the hose to move it very far, but when you need to do it, it's possible to do.
After shutting everything down and packing up the engine(s), we took the drafting engine to a hydrant and flushed out the pump; the creek wasn't that deep, and we ended up pulling a lot of mud through at various times. Our engines can sure flow the water.
All in all, this was a welcome break from Essentials, especially as I got to work with more of the guys from my own company.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
AFA
Calls have been rather light for the past week or two, but got an automatic fire alarm (AFA) this afternoon late. IIRC, this was the first call that I've been on since getting chief's official blessing to ride the engines, and I got to ride engine 1, along with two regular FFs (i.e. that could go inside) and two other probie/junior FFs (like me). Engine 2 and squad also responded, somewhat light on crew.
As with most AFA's, it turned out to be not much of anything. The alarm apparently reset itself, and three of our guys went inside with the thermal camera to make sure there wasn't anything. They found nothing, and after 15-20 mins of standing by outside, we returned.
As with most AFA's, it turned out to be not much of anything. The alarm apparently reset itself, and three of our guys went inside with the thermal camera to make sure there wasn't anything. They found nothing, and after 15-20 mins of standing by outside, we returned.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Ladders
Training continues. Tue was ladder practicals, which I arrived late for, so I missed throwing roof ladders (i.e. putting a short ladder up against a wall, ready to climb), and was late to get in line for the one-man throw of a 28-ft extension ladder. Last night made up for that.
I was among the first to throw the 28-ft, which unfortunately meant that the instructor assisted me more than I would have liked, (rather than just reminding me of things, like he did with later students), but it was fairly easy. Putting a ladder like that up yourself, it's a bit unwieldy, but as long as you know where it's likely to move, pretty easy to control.
Then we did a 4-man raise of a 3-section extension ladder. In our group, I manned the halyard, which meant I pulled the rope to raise the thing, lifting 2/3rds of the weight with the ladder's pulley system. Much heavier than the 28-ft. Initially, we put it up to the 3rd floor level of the training tower, and climbed up empty-handed, then with an axe in hand. Simple enough, although I tended to hug the ladder more than I should have, making it harder than it needed to be. After a couple of tries, I did a much better job of keeping my arms straight and my legs in front of me, and it went much better.
After that, they raised the ladder to the roof of the 3-story tower, and had us each climb up to the top, to be the "victim", while another student was the "rescuer", who climbed up behind the victim and guided him down. I got to be each, once. At one point, as victim, I got a bit worried at the height of it all, but recovered and did fine. I'm pretty sure nobody's going to name me class mountain goat, though. (And for some reason, I'm a bit stiff today...)
We've got next week off from class, coming back for two more weeks, the Thu of the 2nd week being the Exterior test night.
I was among the first to throw the 28-ft, which unfortunately meant that the instructor assisted me more than I would have liked, (rather than just reminding me of things, like he did with later students), but it was fairly easy. Putting a ladder like that up yourself, it's a bit unwieldy, but as long as you know where it's likely to move, pretty easy to control.
Then we did a 4-man raise of a 3-section extension ladder. In our group, I manned the halyard, which meant I pulled the rope to raise the thing, lifting 2/3rds of the weight with the ladder's pulley system. Much heavier than the 28-ft. Initially, we put it up to the 3rd floor level of the training tower, and climbed up empty-handed, then with an axe in hand. Simple enough, although I tended to hug the ladder more than I should have, making it harder than it needed to be. After a couple of tries, I did a much better job of keeping my arms straight and my legs in front of me, and it went much better.
After that, they raised the ladder to the roof of the 3-story tower, and had us each climb up to the top, to be the "victim", while another student was the "rescuer", who climbed up behind the victim and guided him down. I got to be each, once. At one point, as victim, I got a bit worried at the height of it all, but recovered and did fine. I'm pretty sure nobody's going to name me class mountain goat, though. (And for some reason, I'm a bit stiff today...)
We've got next week off from class, coming back for two more weeks, the Thu of the 2nd week being the Exterior test night.
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