ARFF Training, Day 1

I can't gauruntee that all these pictures are from the correct days, but they'll give you an idea of what we did. We met up at 0800 on Monday morning to head out to the training ground, which was about 4 or 5 miles from the hotel. The first thing we did was get our turnout gear, which was all 'silvers' or proximity gear. Then we did some evolutions with ladders, concentrating on the basics of throwing ladders and the best places to put ladders when you're talking about airplanes.

This is the burn plane we used for training. It is made of steel, and both it and the area around it are laced with pipes that carry compressed natural gas, which can be ignited to create fire. All of this is controlled by the instructors via computer, so they can turn the fire 'on and off.' It makes it as safe as possible, and also is much easier than burning up a bunch of planes.

After we trained on ladders, we split into 2 groups (we had 16 people in the class) and half the class went to do driver training on the big trucks, and the other half went to do actual firefighting evolutions. I was in the second group. Basically they broke us up into smaller groups of 3 or 4, and did Search and Rescue (SAR) work, where we had to go through the plane and look for 'victims' (old turnout gear that had been stuffed so it was a dummy). After the SAR evolutions were done, we did some hose advancement. Let me tell you, it's tough to move a charged hoseline (full of water) through a house, but it's really tough to get it through and around in an airplane that has only a small isle to walk through. In a real plane emergency, there would be melted plastic and luggage and all kinds of stuff to crawl on and through too.

And inside the plane, with fire going, and with fire going outside the plane for the drivers to practice with, and water (turning to steam) we not only looked like baked potatos, we felt like them!

Here's a shot of some people (not me) heading into the plane for a hoseline evolution.


And this is one of the dummies on the wing of the plane after the SAR team removed it.


Now, remember, this is in the desert, 4200 ft above sea level, and the air temperature was about 95*F by noon. With the white concrete on the training ground, and the sun beating down, it was about 150*F, or so the instructors said. Due to the heat, for every minute we were in full gear, we had the same amount of time out of full gear, drinking water and Gatorade and sitting in the shade. Because of the elevation, several of us used a lot more air from our tanks than we were used to.

Any way, around 1230, we headed back to the hotel for lunch, a break (during which most of us showered), and then did paperwork and classroom stuff in the afternoon. Then it was dinner, and we were free till the next day, at 0800.

Mind you, because of the time difference (Salt Lake City is 2 hours behind the East Coast), I was in bed by 2200 at the latest, but up at 0500.

Day 2...I get to drive the big truck!