Training with the Times

High-Tech Training Tools for Firefighters

Research & high-tech training tools help firefighters prepare for the modern firegroundBy Vicki Schmidt Published Monday, September 30, 2013 firefighternation.com

Chief training officers with any degree of awareness cannot ignore the writings of groups such as Compartment Fire Behavior Training (CFTB-US), UL, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the NYU-Poly Fire Research Group. These organizations, and many others, are offering some of the best online training for tactics for modern fires. These resources feature quick links to videos and are complemented with questions and testing to help ensure that the knowledge is entrenched and retained in viewers. Further, the programs are designed to meet the needs of both career and volunteer firefighters.

There’s no doubt we live in a technology-driven era. Fire research and the resulting recommendations are addressing the dramatic changes in tactics that have been driven by the building and construction industries. As chief commanders, instructors and training officers, we need to review our current curriculums and update our skill drills and our quality indicators (the criteria instructors use to measure and ensure a skill drill is done properly). We need to work with other officers to ensure that our standard operating procedures (SOPs) match the recommended tactics and direct the tasks that produce the safest, most effective outcomes.

Instituting the knowledge and implementing the recommendations from recent research does not mean abandoning what we know. Progressive instructors will use the technologies and recommendations to expand and enhance existing skills. As Steve Kerber from UL often states in his lectures, “As a whole, the fire service knows very well how to ventilate, but we do not know the what, where, when and why.” Fortunately, online training resources offer training officers the opportunity to present the “what, where, when and why” to their company officers and grassroots firefighters.

For those who have reviewed the recent reports from the UL ventilation studies, the most overt take-home message is this: Everything we do on the fireground has an impact on the flow path. While the phenomenon itself is nothing new, our level of knowledge about it certainly is. The synergistic effect of modern construction with a modern fuel load often leads to very dramatic and hostile fire dynamics. Air movement has always been one of the more abstract elements of the fireground. We rarely notice or detect changes in pressurization and interior air currents, or the impact of air movement, until we see or physically feel the result of the changes. Visual changes in smoke characteristics (volume, velocity, density, color) or a rapid rise in temperature felt through our protective fire gear signal the impending consequence of hostile conditions.

Fireground commanders with instilled wisdom or firefighters reacting on “gut instinct” may predict and react swiftly to dramatic changes and prevent a tragedy. But the changes can be rapid, volatile and deadly, especially to inexperienced or distracted commanders and firefighters. A moment’s missed action due to a change in smoke conditions or a change in temperature may lead to firefighters being caught in a flashover or a global collapse of the structure.

P.J. Norwood, the training officer and deputy chief at East Haven (Conn.) Fire Department, sees the new research as supporting tactics we already know, but tactics we rarely incorporate into our standard fireground strategies. “We all know and teach VES, but how many of us actually have it in our SOPs or consider it as a regular tactic?” he asks. More recent literature accentuates VES with isolation (VEIS) and closing the door, but this has always been a part of VES. “Recent research brings to light the added importance of isolation,” he adds.

While we often hear the phrase another “tool in the toolbox,” we need to realize that the fire service has a lot of tools—blitz attack, VEIS, foam and CAFS, to name a few. But like most craftsmen, we only use the tools we prefer. We have skills and tactics with which we are most comfortable and therefore use routinely. We utilize these skills because they have served us well in the past, but does that ensure they will serve us well in the modern fire environment? Again, the available online training can provide a fundamental foundation that allows your training officers to complement modern training technologies with field-based, hands-on training activities.

As a chief training officer, ask yourself, “Are there tactics we have that we’re not using due to skill level or comfort? Can we bring them to the forefront? Practice them? And see how they work to complement the new research?” Tools and skills that sit idle may fail to serve us when we need them. Rarely do we reach for every tool equally. But the new research suggests those “tools at the back of our toolbox” might merit the grasp, the perfecting of advanced techniques, and their incorporation into our SOPs

One indisputable fact is that the research from NIST, UL and many others is driven 100% by questions from fire departments, fireground commanders and firefighters who have an insatiable appetite for answers about the what, where, when and why related to their fallen brothers and sisters. The research was designed and conducted byfirefighters for firefighters. Furthermore, these years of research were funded, and continue to be funded, in part by the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, along with support from administrators at UL and NIST who believe in their staff.

Whether old school, new school or no school, as a chief training officer, make it your duty to bring attention to the new training opportunities. Bring that attention with honor and gratitude and on behalf of those who brought us answers when firefighters asked the questions “why?”

Suggested Links
Polytechnic Institute of NYU
www.poly.edu/fire/

Underwriters Laboratory, Research and Training information
www.ul.com/global/eng/pages/newscience/firesafety

Compartment Fire Behavior Training, resource pages
www.cfbt-us.com/resources.html

County of Los Angeles, Training Service Section
www.lacofdturnout.com/

National Institute of Standards and Technology
www.nist.gov/fire/training.cfm

By the Light of the Full Moon

There's a kinda cute guy I've know awhile. He finally calls and asks if I'd like to do something Saturday night. He's a nice guy, sorta of citified, but says he thinks he'd like the country life. So I say “sure, what sounds good”. He says “its going to be a nice cool crisp evening with the light of a full moon”, then he asks, what sounds good to me. 

I think for a moment and reply, “Well, I have a swarm of honey bees I really need to move to a new area. That would be the perfect weather and amount of light. Would you like to help?”

Click.

Did I say something wrong?

Mother's Things

Mother's Things

Mothers are amazing. I always knew that about my mom, who has been gone for six years now . A few weeks ago I found the courage to start going through some of the boxes of her things. They were stashed in an unused upstairs bedroom in my home soon after she passed away.

One box was tagged “Vicki's stuff”. I never knew it was my stuff, I just thought it was an old box that had been at the house. Some of her clothes were in that box and after all these years, they still smelled of the laundry soap she used. It was like she was there with me somehow. At the bottom of the box were piles of papers. Documents I'd written in college, report cards from grade school, lots of letters I'd written to her over the years, and a July 1982 issue of Firehouse magazine.

I suspect I left the magazine at their home on one of my visits. My mom was a nurse and told me several times how she thought she would have enjoyed being a medevac nurse. Mom enjoyed hearing about my activities as a volunteer EMT, and my dreams of being a firefighter too someday. The magazine was something she'd enjoy reading through as well. And she knew I'd be back to read it someday.

I know mom's going to be a medevac nurse on a helicopter in her next life time. I want to fly helicopters, so maybe I'll be her pilot. But either way, thirty one years later, we finally finished reading the magazine. Together. Thanks Mom.

Does Anyone Here Speak Fire?

My Chief is very old school. When I brought out the NFPA certified pink camo helmet I’d won at a weekend fire school he just about went over the edge. Gruff words followed “There will be no pink worn on this Department”. Having learned long ago how to dodge a chief’s bullet, I just smiled and quickly turned the subject to other things I’d learned that weekend. Knowing full well that after a few weeks of seeing the helmet sitting by my gear he’d say; “it’s probably OK to wear it”. He’s is a great firefighter, a wonderful big brother, and a very good chief. I’ve been his Training Officer for several years and I’ve come to realize. Chiefs are very much like my other fire students – give them the “why” to the lesson and the desired shift in attitude, skill, or behavior, often follows. 

The pink helmet stirred much less attention than a question from one of our Junior firefighters later in the evening “when is our next training on fire behavior?” I casually mentioned sometime soon, and went onto explain that from now on we’ll call it “fire dynamics”. There’s a big difference. Fire behavior has inherent limits to its definition, but fire dynamics involves the fire’s reaction to all the actions of every firefighter and every happening on the fire ground. My chief stopped dead in his tracks, turned and looked at me and said “when are they going to stop?”

In all honesty, I wanted to answer - hopefully never, but I knew what he meant. Today’s changes are a lot to absorb, especially for Chiefs and chief officers. Not only do they have a calamity of endless paperwork, regulations, codes, and political issues to deal with; research and science seems to be changing all the definitions, training needs, and tactics at the same time. I sensed my chief’s growing frustration with the challenges and told him not worry; we’ve got it under control. We have the science, we have the technology, and we have fire fighters excited to learn. (What more could a training officer ask for?) And one more shining star: our Department’s internet service is now up to speed and can serve our rural western Maine town with ease. YouTube video’s and webcasts are broadcast without interruption. It will take time to adapt to the knowledge but we can do it. We can now talk fire. We can bring it all right to our little department. We can address the challenges, explain the science, expand our skills, and practice a variety of tactics. I sincerely believe, there is no greater time than now to be a training officer and an instructor.

But all this said, I think I’ll wait until next month, after my Chief says it’s OK to wear my new helmet to break the news: someday soon we’re going to have a class on flow path control. “You know Chief, all stuff that we used to just call ventilation but now we know there’s more to it. We have to help them understand the difference between flow path control and tactical ventilation?” Once again, he’ll almost be over the edge, but along with being a great Chief he’s a great firefighter as well. He’ll adapt and overcome and in that gruff voice he’ll eventually say, “OK, I trust you know what you’re doing”. Did I mention what a great Chief he is?

Maine Fire Incident Reporting (MEFIRS) by County

This series of maps shows the Maine Fire Incident Reporting for fire departments 2009-2011. This is a draft project with ArcGIS Online and presented via Arc Explorer. Feedback and comments much appreciated. . .
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Learning Arc GIS Online - 1982 Maine Rivers Study

This is a bit of a test. Working at learning ArcGIS Online. . This is a map project for the 1982 Maine Rivers Study. We'll see how it goes : ) Comments and feedback appreciated.
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Commanding The Box

Arriving home safe from a structure fire demands every firefighter fully understands knowing where they are located at all times relative to alpha, bravo, charlie, delta. Knowing the sides of the box, especially when that box is a residential home, is paramount for a firefighter to excel at situational awareness. But as important as it is for a firefighter to know the sides of the box, key leadership must also know the value of the other two sides, the inside and the outside. This combined knowledge sets the stage for reducing fire fighter injuries and fatalities.

The momentum of knowledge streaming in from research by the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) and Underwriters Laboratory, (UL) combined with such agencies as the International Society of Fire Services Instructors (ISFSI) needs no introduction. Firefighters and commanding officers everywhere have experienced what high-level technical research can now prove to us; the buildings reaction to fire in the modern box is different from that experienced by generations before us. Echo the words of one undeniably passionate instructor, Peter Van Dorpe, Chief of Training at the Chicago Fire Academy, “everything about the built environment has changed”.

A decade ago few could have envisioned the new wave of fire terminology that changes in building construction would bring to fire sciences. Words such as flow path, heat release, ventilated limited, and “the spike” were rarely heard. And, as is still the case today, were not included in the commercial fire curriculums used by most fire training academies. Modern firefighting demands everyone involved understand the knowledge behind the new terminology, and more importantly that everything that happens on every side of the box has a direct and immediate impact on the flow path and in turn - fire behavior inside the box.

As a fire commander, when you pull onto a reported fire scene and see little or nothing showing always ask yourself “at what stage of the fire are we arriving”. Know the time it takes from the moment the air brakes are set to the time your crew will have water ready to attack the fire. You might arrive post initial growth and the report of “little smoke showing” is masking a ventilation limited fire. Enter into the box of a residential fire, whether VES without immediate isolation or an aggressive attack through the front door and the result will often spawn an immediate secondary growth of a ventilation limited fire; termed by many as “the spike”. The spike occurs when a secure and ventilation limited “box”, the residential home your crew is about to enter, is violated. The air fed to the fire due to the violation, causes the ventilation limited area to flashover. Temperatures during the ventilation limited flashover caused by this second growth phase will often spike to over 1000 degrees in less than ninety seconds.

Modern commanders need to know how their commanding actions outside the box are going to impact the flow path and resulting fire conditions inside the box. Commanders must be prepared for an immediate change in fire behavior and conditions. If your crew reports “its getting extremely hot in here” order an immediate evacuation. Those words are a red flag that your crew has entered a ventilation limited area and the area will spike. Additionally, the high degree of heat release is negatively impacting the structural components of the building and global failure, usually a ceiling or floor collapse, is imminent. Study research noted by Dan Madrzykowski of NIST and Steve Kerber of UL and you’ll understand the impact of our tactics on ventilation limited fires: how to better recognize them and how to prevent firefighter death and injury due to them.

Change happens, whether a decade of research and a few definitions, or a few seconds of fire attack and a resulting flashover. Know where you and your crews are at all times, both inside and outside the box. Additionally, know at all times how you and your crews actions, both inside and outside the box, will impact the flow path, heat release rates, ventilation, and the resulting building behavior. 

View on FireChief Mutual Aid with video links:

http://firechief.com/blog/determining-fire-behavior-modern-construction-furnishings-related-video