Published: February 09, 2009 03:29 pm      

Firefighters rescue ‘Randy’

About forty fire fighters and volunteer fire fighters from Amber, Bridge Creek, Pocasset, Tuttle and Harold fire departments gathered in Amber on Saturday, Feb. 7 for hands-on training exercises. Also represented were the Grady County Sheriff’s Office, Amber and Bridge Creek Police Departments, the Grady County Fire Department and Chief Fire and Safety of Chickasha.

While about 10 seasoned fire fighters acted as Training Officers and Safety Officers, the others, mostly rookies, donned fire fighting gear, including self-contained breathing apparatus, and entered a smoke-filled house trailer in teams of two to locate “victims” -- “Rescue Randy Dummies -- inside the house.

“We’re going to have a full day of hands-on training, and we’re going to make the scene as life-like as possible, as real as an actual scene,” said Amber Assistant Fire Chief Mike Norman. “We’ll go to the scene and set the scenario then break into teams. Then we’ll let them figure out if it’s a go or a no go until they know what they’re doing.”

After safety instructions and assignment of training and safety officers, the group headed out to the training site, a derelict double-wide trailer located on the west side of Amber which was given to the fire department to “play with,” according to Norman.

“We can demolish it all we want,” he said.

Branson Byrd, a Bridge Creek volunteer for eight months has experienced such hands-on training before.

“Every time you do it, you learn something new. It prepares you for the real thing,” he said.

John Woodall, a Bridge Creek volunteer for 10 months who said he hopes to “learn as much as possible“ during the day‘s training activity, said “It’s really good for people who are new; it lets them learn what they’re supposed to be doing.”

Upon arriving on the training site, a group of fire fighters placed two 165-pound dummies, or victims, inside the trailer, one in a front bedroom, the other down a long, narrow hall in a small bathroom at the back of the house.

They then began to fill the house with dense “smoke.”

According to Bridge Creek fire fighter Larry Ritter, the “Maxi Fogger” machine uses a non-toxic water-based fog to produce the “smoke” inside the structure.

“It has to heat up to produce smoke,” said Ritter. “It will take about 10 minutes to fill the trailer, it doesn’t take long.”

Inside, the trailer fills with a gray smoke that obliterates everything. The only thing visible is light coming in through the windows, but as the smoke thickens, that, too disappears. A man standing only five feet away cannot be seen indeed, it is difficult if not impossible to see a hand placed in front of one’s face.

However, with the use of a thermal imaging device, the man five feet away may be clearly seen.

“It finds hot spots and enables us to see through the smoke,” said Bridge Creek fire fighter John Love. “It’s an invaluable tool, there’s a lot of cool things we can do with it, but there’s a lot of tricks to understand, too.”

The tool, which comes with a hefty price tag of more than $10,000, can detect fire inside a structure as well as inside attics and with it, fire fighters don’t have to cut through ceilings or walls to locate fire.

In addition to fire fighting, the imager can be utilized for other situations as well.

“If there’s a car wreck, it can tell if the car seat is still warm from the person who was sitting there if they’ve wandered away and it can also find someone in the dark, like a criminal who is hiding or a lost little girl,“ said Love. “It can even show the imprint of a person on the floor after they’ve been moved. It makes people stick out like a sore thumb.”

With the dummies in place and the structure filled with smoke, Norman once again emphasized the need for safety before the teams entered the building.

“This is a primary search, effective but rapid,” he told the teams. “You’ve got 30 minutes of bottled air so conserve your air until you need it. You’re gonna learn a lot of stuff today, and safety is of the utmost importance. We want this to be as fun as possible and as safe as possible.”

The teams began the drill by walking all around the house. Then, a team of two entered the front door on all fours and began a search of the house.

“It’s a total blackout inside a burning house,” said Perry Wenzel, Grady County fire chief. “Everything has to be done by feeling and hearing.”

The first group inside called for a hose truck to be brought in and a hose was fed to them through the front door.

“We bring the hose in when it gets too dark to see,” said Love. “Then we can follow the hose back outside.”

After the first team went as far as it could go, team number two entered, following the hose to the place where team number one left off. Shortly after, there were cries from inside saying they had found the first victim and the team drug out the first of the dummies.

Colten Weger, a Pocasset volunteer for two years who has fought “a ton of grass fires” but no structure fires, came out of the trailer red-faced and sweating.

“This was a big experience,” he said.

With the third team inside the house, Norman said the training went “better than excellent.”

“I’d say it went excellently. Nobody got hurt and everybody got some good training.,“ he said. “We don’t very often have the opportunity to practice on a structure.”