At Station 4, we split up again into three groups for the training rotation. My group started off with more hydrant work. This time in the daylight and some more guidance, we were able to find the correct hydrant off the main road in a nearby neighborhood. In this next advancement in training, the truck would actually be moving forward on our signal. This way, we get to feel how supply line pulls against the hydrant and see the importance of making sure we are out of the way if something gets caught up and the supply line pulls out from underneath our foot. Having a new hydrant wrench is a big improvement too, as the one used last night would not tighten enough to stay on the hydrant. We are to never set the wrench on the ground. Apparently, the sand has a tendency to swallow hydrant wrenches.
You're the firefighter right behind the driver, because that's the side that the hydrant tools are on. The driver, who is the engineer, stops just past the hydrant going towards the fire. You, the hydrant person, gets out of the engine looking up for hanging electrical and other obstructions, looking down for dangers such as fuel on the ground and side to side for traffic. The first compartment on each rig is where the hydrant tools are kept. Grab the wrench and place the 4-inch adapter onto it, then the gate valve goes on top of that so that you can carry the entire cluster with one hand. In most of the other engines and trucks, there is a yellow bag with all of this equipment already gathered together. Carry this in your right hand, because you are going to grabbing the strap that has the 4-inch supply line with your left as you round the back of the engine. Drag the supply line to and around the hydrant, place your foot on the end of the supply line behind the coupling, and give the signal to engineer to drive towards the fire. Once the coupling at connecting the first 50-foot section to the next hits the ground, get busy on getting the adapter and gate valve connected to the hydrant. And, of course, the supply line too. Wait for the signal to send water or you can clearly see that the hose clamp has been set on the supply line by the engineer. I'm still clumsy, but getting it done.
Next is the smoke room and this time we get to do the search and extraction of possible victims. The simulation is run with a three-person team. The nozzle lead, the search dog and the officer. One of the trainers will be our officer. The nozzle lead checks the door for heat stratification and whether the door is open, and what pressure is on the door. All of this is communicated to the rest of the team. Then the nozzle lead does an initial entry and search for victims that might be right near the door. They go in low, with one foot hooked onto the door jam to prevent them from going too far and making it possible to be pulled out quickly if needed. Searching as far as their arms will allow in all directions, making note of the situation simultaneously, getting back out and closing the door before communicating the three "Ls" to the rest of the team. Life--did you find or see any victims. Layout--what did the layout of the building look like, what could you see. And, Location of the fire. The smoke was so thick that trying use the flashlight only made things worse, just like trying to use your high beams from your car when driving in heavy fog.
Nozzle lead in front, search dog in the middle and officer in the rear. Nozzle lead calls out clearly what they see as they see it. We have determined that we are doing a right-hand search before going in, so we work our way into the building while maintaining close contact with the right hand wall. The search dog is on the left side of the hose in order to extend the distance into the room. When a doorway is found--by feel, because you can't see anything at all--the nozzle lead calls it out and moves to just beyond the doorway. The officer sends the search dog into the room to do a right hand wall search in that room. Everyone stops moving forward until that room is determined clear of victims. The door of that room is then closed if possible and marked on the door as being cleared. Then we move forward into the building. If a victim or victims are found, they are removed by the search dog and officer. The nozzle lead backs up towards the entry door with the nozzle facing the fire at all times to be close enough to pick up the search dog and officer once they get the victim out the door and make their way back into the building to continue the search. The search must be done high and low looking in places where someone caught might go to try and escape the fire and smoke. Closets, bathrooms, under beds--everywhere. Once the search is complete, the team makes their way back out of the building by following the charged hose. Remember, you cannot see anything and the entire search is done by Braille, so to speak.
Our searching of the smoke room was without a charged hose, so it was a simple task to make it ready for the next rotation group and we were on our way next door to the fire box. Here we were going to be in the room--another 40-foot shipping container--with a live fire going inside. We got to go into the fire box just as the initial fire was being started to watch how it developed. As the pallets and an old Christmas tree were ignited, the room began to fill with smoke. It filled with so much smoke that it was just like the smoke room in that we were unable to see each other or the fire for that matter. Every once in a while, a small orange glow would appear where the fire was hottest. Even though I knew that no one had moved from our semi-circle facing the fire container, I involuntarily reached out a couple times to see if I could touch one of my team mates sitting next to me. It was a more than a little un-nerving when I wasn't able to feel them there. The trainer then ordered us to back out of the fire box. After making sure all were out and okay, we talked about what we felt and saw. Then we readied to go back in.
The second trip into the fire box, the fire was more developed and smoke had begun to clear a bit. We were able to see the fire. It had grown hot enough to start pallets on fire that were just hanging on the walls, but were not actually in the fire. Being about 10 feet from the fire, we were getting hot. The heat was making it's way through the protection of our turn out gear. The trainer had us put out the fire, as we were the last ones to go through this rotation today. I was right behind the guy with the nozzle as we were putting out the fire and retreating. During the debrief, I found out that I was too close and was making it difficult for him to control the nozzle.
Before getting back into the engines and other vehicles, we did a preliminary scrub down at Station 4 of our turn outs. While wearing them, we were hosed down and then scrubbed with a brush and soaping water. It was just like if you were washing your car. One more hose off to get the soap off and we were packing up and headed back to Station 1, where we could do another decon of our gear and the air packs.
All of the air packs were laid out in a row with the air bottles removed and taken to be recharged and wiped down. The air packs were scrubbed with brushes and soapy water and thoroughly rinsed and patted dry before being refitted with air bottles. Each engine and truck was restocked with air packs to be ready for any incident.
We didn't do the organizing first for cleanup tonight, because everyone was on it already. If someone didn't have something to do, they were coming to me for an assignment. It was pretty cool seeing how we were coming together as a team. I did the sweeping of the bay and vacuuming, as everything else was being covered.
We were out the door at 6:00pm--1800 hours. I was beat and in bed by 9:00pm--2100 hours.
Up at 3am for more cobbler and ice cream and an Aleve.
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