Firefighters like to practice their firefighting techniques before they are called upon to apply them to real-world fires. The traveling Interior Fire Attack Simulator gives them the chance to do so in a safe and controlled environment.
The simulator, basically a 30-foot trailer with a 14-foot tower at the front end, rolled into Granger Saturday morning and gave area firefighters plenty of practice with interior attacks, such as fighting a basement fire or a ceiling fire in a house.
The simulator “lets firefighters throughout the state of Iowa to get live fire training,” said Brandon Kooiker, field staff instructor with the Fire Service Training Bureau (FSTB). He said finding real houses to burn for training purposes is becoming “very difficult today because of the great building codes that we have available to us and the technology that we use for building houses.”
The interior-attack trailer has propane burners placed at different points inside it as well as a smoke generator that produces non-toxic but very realistic smoke.
“We have several burners that are in here,” Kooiker said, “so it gives the firefighters the opportunity to do the hose handling that they need to. They can do fire screens. It also gives them the ability to work on their communications skills and then work with their personal protective equipment as well as the incident command system.”
The simulations are accurate and realistic, he said, but also very safe for the students.
“If something does go wrong with the student,” he said, “let’s say they run out of air in their (self-contained vacuum anchor) cylinder or they’re claustrophobic, in this situation, all the instructor inside has to do is release the safety button, and the fire goes out at that point in time, and we can get the student out in a safe manner.”
A fully engulfed house used in a training burn is not so easily controlled, he said.
Jim Kenkel of Granger, FSTB special programs manager and a 40-year member of the Granger Volunteer Fire Department, said the Interior Fire Attack Simulator is in use steadily from March through November.
Freezing becomes a problem in colder weather, Kenkel said, “but if somebody wants it and the weather conditions are right, we’re there because fires don’t wait until nice weather.”
He said the classes serve all grades of firefighters, “from the very beginning people who are just starting with the fire service to those that have been very seasoned in the fire service, so it gives them a refresher on how to attack fires.”
Perry Volunteer Fire Department firefighter Deanna Eiteman was the sole volunteer from the Perry force attending Saturday’s training, which was mostly people by Granger firefighters.
The day’s first “evolution,” as Kooiker called the exercises, simulated a basement fire. “As they come down,” he said, “this stairwell, since we’re simulating this as a basement, acts as a chimney. They have heat that’s coming up. They have smoke that’s coming up as well. Basement fires are very dangerous for firefighters because of the unknown that they’re coming into as well as a lot of older houses that we have here in Iowa usually have one way in and one way out, so we always teach that you have to figure out a secondary means of egress anytime you’re inside a structure.”
Kenkel said “rehab support” was provided by the Granger EMS. He said the FTSB always asks the department hosting the training classes to have a rehab team available in case of injuries.
“It’s extremely challenging,” Kenkel said of the interior attacks. “It wears them out with all the gear that they’ve got on, especially in the summertime. When you get a 100-degree day, then five minutes may be all they can handle, and they’re done for the day. That’s why, with this type of training, they learn what their limitations are.”
