09-24-2010

I've had a lot of fun at the fire academy the last two days. On Thursday, we got to set up some smoker barrels to practice ventilation, and we also practiced hose handling. Today, Friday, we went over apparatus familiarization.

On Thursday, Alpha and Charlie Companies were the first in for hydraulic ventilation. The instructors set two barrels of hay on fire in the basement of the burn building. We followed the hoseline into the fire room, opened a window, and sprayed a fog stream out of the window. Somehow, the fog stream sucks air/smoke from behind the nozzle and expels it on the other side of the water stream. The objective was to use this method to clear some smoke out of the room. We followed the hoseline back outside, then re-grouped for the next evolution. This time, we were smart enough to take our laminated ID tags off of our helmets. In the basement, some of our ID tags began to melt from the heat of the fire. At the next evolution, we had two barrels of hay set on fire in a room on the first floor. We followed the hoseline in as our instructors explained to us natural ventilation, Positive Pressure Ventilation (PPV), and horozontal ventilation. Once we had all crawled into the fire room, our instructors had us stand up to see the difference in visibility at ground level and up higher in the room. At ground level, I could see about 3 feet in front of me. Standing up, I couldn't see my hand waving right in front of my face. For natural ventilation, you simply open up the windows, trying to use the wind to your advantage. This process is fairly slow at removing smoke. For PPV, you use a fan on the exterior of the structure that blows air into the building. This pressurizes the building and makes it easier for the smoke to clear out when you open the windows. The only downside to this, is that the fire is fed by the fresh air, so it tends to flare up. When we turned on the fan, I was crouching down on the ground, and all I could see was this orange glow building up around me. Around that time, our instructors told us to stand up. At this point, it was starting to get hot. I couldn't see anything but the orange glow. I began to wonder if I was still supposed to be standing up in the heat, but I couldn't see anyone from my company or the instructors to know if that's what everyone else was doing. Of course, I'm the tallest out of everyone in that room, so I'm feeling more heat than everyone else. Finally the instructors tell us to crouch down and ventilate the room. It's amazing how much it helps. I finally got my bunker gear dirty; I'm starting to look less and less like a clueless rookie every day!

After the evolution, one of the cadets next to me said that he was also wondering if we were still supposed to be standing once it got hot, so he crouched down before we were told to. He said he figured he couldn't get in trouble for it because it's not like the instructors could see what he was doing anyways. It was pretty fun to experience the fires. Another cadet said that he and the instructor were right up against the barrel, and they were really starting to feel the heat, so the instructor told him to move away from the barrel cause it was getting too hot. We stayed in the fire room for about 15 minutes, spraying water every once in a while to keep the fire from getting too big. I'm excited to finally be getting into the fun stuff.

Today, Friday, was our PT test and apparatus familiarization day. For the PT test, I did 49 pushups, 42 situps, 5 pullups, and I ran the 1.5 miles in 12:01. I was very excited to get my 1.5 miles down into the 12 minute range. That's been my goal for the last two weeks. I'm excited to see myself improving! When I first started the fire academy, I could do about 15 pushups, 20 situps, 2 pullups, and run 1.5 miles in about 16 minutes.

For apparatus familiarization, we looked over the different types of fire apparatus, and maintenance. After lunch, we went out into the bay, started up the trucks, and looked through them. It was a very relaxed day!