Osterhage said that to ensure that each of the base’s firefighters has an opportunity for the required training, a total of three training days are scheduled every six months. More than 20 firefighters assembled for their part of proficiency skill training at their training burn pit May 30.
“Some of the basic training objectives for the training evolutions are to identify safety considerations that should be taken prior to live-fire training; crews must demonstrate the ability to work as a team to position apparatus, and deploy and advance hand lines,” Osterhage said of the day’s activities. “Crews must demonstrate the ability to apply fire streams to a given area while operating the apparatus, and crews must demonstrate the ability to work as a team member to attack and extinguish two- and three-dimensional fires.”
On the aircraft fire training area of the training site, evaluators can simulate an aircraft fuel fire on a life-size aircraft mock-up, including pooling, spilling and running from the engines and on the ground. Using propane to supply the flames, the trainers can tailor the fire locations and also quickly cut off the fuel supply should the need arise.
As Osterhage and his team activated the training simulator, sheets of flame erupt from each of the faux aircraft’s engines, spreading along the ground nearby and at various locations in and around the fuselage. Massive eight-wheeled, P-23 crash trucks arrive to respond to the fire and their roaring engines charge powerful, on-board water pumps to quickly deliver up to 3,300 gallons of water through the front-mounted turrets or, when the firefighters later dismount, by hand-line.
Upon gaining entry in to the now-steaming and still-smoldering hulk, firefighters search for victims, in the form of training mannequins, and bring them to fresh air and safety.
Under the watchful gaze of seasoned firefighters in the nearby control tower, as well as other training staff at the pit itself, the exercise progressed through each phase of the event. Nearby an equally vigilant team of medical personnel was on standby in the remote chance that their services might be required for the firefighters.
With the individual objectives met, the trucks ware refilled with water, and the event was repeated until each of the firefighters had a turn at it.
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When gathered for the post-event debriefing, District Chief Wesley Hatfield asked the assembled firefighters how they thought they did.
788th CES firefighter Jeff Turner immediately responded with a smile, “We did awesome!”
The ensuing light-hearted reaction helped every one gear down from the intensity of their recent training and the conversation quickly returned to a critique of crash-truck positioning, turret operations, transition issues and the ever-important buddy checks.
“This is about as realistic as we can see for training,” Steven McKee, 788th CES firefighter, said of the experience. “It gives us the opportunity to practice different hose-line techniques, ‘dummy drags’ where we are simulating pulling victims out of the wreckage, and how to navigate in a burning aircraft in order to suppress normally seen fires.”
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