Good Week So Far!

It has been a good week so far. The highlight of my week was on Monday afternoon. I left the office at 10 am and picked up our CFAAA President….and we both headed out to Choctaw, Okla. to participate in the Oklahoma City Fire Department Recruit Live-Burn exercise. The live-burn exercise is something new fire recruits go through, while they are training to be firefighters. In the live-burn exercise, these recruits are required to have their bunker gear on and actually go through a smoke-filled, fiery building, to do search and rescue and to put the fire out. Also, during this exercise, they are required to go through the “flashover” simulator. What is a flash over?


              Recruits coming out of the flash over simulator

A flash over is the near-simultaneous ignition of most of the directly exposed combustible material in an enclosed area. When certain organic materials are heated they undergo thermal decomposition and release flammable gases. Flash over occurs when the majority of the exposed surfaces in a space are heated to their autoignition temperature and emit flammable gases. Flash over normally occurs at 930 °F, or 1,100 °F, for ordinary combustibles, and an incident heat flux at floor level of 1.8 Btu/ft²*s (20 kW/m²).

Flash overs are not only very dangerous, but they can be deadly to a firefighter. The simulator is controlled by professionals and the heat inside varies. Close to the ceiling, it can be as hot as 2,000 degrees, whereas, in the middle of the room it is around 600 degrees and 300 degrees at floor level. That’s one reason firefighters enter a building on their knees, or crouched down. That way, they escape some of the very intense heat.

The recruits on Monday experienced what it was like to be in a flash over, as all of them were required to go through the simulator. They also experienced what it was like to have to make forced entry into a house with solid doors and how to make entry into a house, or business, with burglar bars on them. Another part of their exercise was practicing on how to ventilate a roof. They have to probe to find the right spot…and then use an axe to cut into the roof. Once they make a cut in the roof, they use a chainsaw to cut out a piece of the roof so smoke can escape and less chance of a flash over.


                                 Recruits ventilating roof


It was very, very, interesting to watch these recruits in action. They have to be in excellent physical shape to perform these tasks. As the recruits were getting ready for their last scenario of the day (going into a burning building), I was given the opportunity to participate, which I did. I was outfitted with the proper bunker gear and had one of the fire chiefs as my instructor. I entered the burning building and could not see a thing. They had me sit on a bale of hay in the corner, which allowed me to observe the recruits come in and put the fire out. I was in there for about 10 minutes and it was very, very, hot. When I came out, I was sweating profusely. I can’t imagine how the other recruits were handling it, since they were the ones in action. I was just sitting and got very hot.


                That's me coming out of the burning building


       That's me going into the burning building


That was basically the end of my exciting day. As I left, I could tell my clothes and jacket smelled of stale smoke and even my truck smelled like smoke. I had a great time and look forward to doing it again.

http://www.centralokreact.org/