Fire drill heats up

Outside the Superior Fire Hall, there is a tractor trailer covered with scorch marks from previous fires, and a team of three Superior Volunteer Firefighters are about to go in and set a blaze just so they can put it out.

“I think it’s great everyone’s getting to work in a simulated and controlled situation, but with real fire, and everyone’s getting to go through the motions and experience just how we ought to be doing it,” Superior Fire Chief John Woodland said.

The Montana State University burn trailer was used in a training exercise with the Superior Volunteer Fire Department last Tuesday, and it gave some of Superior’s volunteer firefighters an opportunity to see how fire really behaves.

Shawn Plakke, an experienced firefighter who graduated from a fire academy in Colorado, was a team captain during one exercise with two less experienced firefighters.

“I think they did good, I’d go in with them again,” Plakke said.

Craig Jeppson, an employee of MSU’s Fire Services Training Center, came out to conduct the training exercise and give the volunteers some pointers on how to handle fire.

“The more you do it, the better you get,” said Woodland.

Jeppson went in with each group, meticulously analyzing the way they attacked each fire and making sure that everyone stayed safe.

At the beginning of the exercise he told everyone that as long as they did not break the seal on their masks and did exactly what he told them there was no way they would get hurt in the trailer.

The burn trailer consists of a mocked up home on the inside with drains in the floor for water to leak through.

Jeppson said that they use a material called excelsior to burn and create the fire for the volunteers to put out.

Since excelsior lights quickly and burns at a very hot temperature it is a great way for the firefighters to get to see exactly how fire responds to different streams from a fire hose.

In some situations firefighters spray a mist over the fire and other times they aim the hose directly at the source. Woodland said that each action has a different response and the trailer was a great opportunity for the Superior Volunteer Fire Department to see their equipment in action.

“What they’re getting the opportunity to do here is watch fire behavior when they do different things so they have a clear understanding of why they want to do one thing or the other when they’re in a real fire,” Woodland said.

The trailer is free for the department to use except for the price of the excelsior burned and the gas to get the truck to the next department it is headed to. Woodland said that they picked the truck up from Plains last Monday.

The teams of three that went in to fight the mock-up fires consisted of a “tool guy,” a “nozzle guy,” and a captain. The captain is responsible for the radio and staying in communication with the fire chief. The tool guy is responsible for testing the floor to make sure it is sturdy and the nozzle guy douses the fire and checks the walls for windows and doors to use as escape points and references for where they are at in the fire.

“You always want to check for windows and doors because you can’t see in a fire with all the smoke. Sometimes you’ll just wind up searching around in a closet. It’s happened to me,” said Jeppson.

Plakke felt that the activity was important because it gave them the opportunity to work together in a situation with real fire and see how the team reacts.

“It’s more or less teamwork,” Plakke said. “You never know who’s going on the fire and who’s going to show up and volunteer.”

Plakke was impressed with his team’s performance, especially considering that they had such little experience with real fire.

“You don’t ever really know what your guys are going to do in a real fire and it’s good to find out in training when you have a backup crew that can pull you out of there,” Plakke said. “I’d go in with them again.”

Plakke said that even though it was a great training exercise, the burn trailer could not really compare to the dangers and intensity of a real fire.

“That’s not even close, in a real fire your face shields are warping and stuff. But it’s good to see the fire behavior. All the fire behavior is the same,” Plakke said.

According to Woodland this is really only a part of their training and, without repeat training, firefighters are not really prepared to deal with real situations.

“It’s important that you do this kind of thing on a repeat basis so when you get the real deal it’s more second nature and the fact that you’re dealing with fire doesn’t throw you off,” Woodland said.

Most importantly, Woodland said that they need more firefighters. While not everyone will have to go headlong into a burning building, they need as many able bodies as possible to help keep the community safe.

“We don’t force anybody to do anything, and we’re always looking for volunteers,” said Plakke.00040000000C0000000201147C100050000000C0000000201147C00006000000660000000210ÅÅC30ÅÇÇ¡FFFFÅÅ0ÇC00000¬