Being a librarian is fun, but the adrenalin rushes are far and few between. Sure who wouldn’t freak out if the server crashes and all of your MARC records are lost, forever? Today I am posting about a bigger rush, firefighting! Any of you who know me know that my wife and I are members of the Livingston-Clifton Fire Department. Beyond that I also help instruct Entry Level Firefighters (ELFF’s) through South West Technical College. ELFF classes are the first two classes needed to join departments in the area.
The picture above is one of the last classes I helped with. (Click on the picture for a larger view)
The day started at 7a.m. The first thing we did was to smoke the house with burning hay in a big barrel. That provided limited visibility for the search and rescue that all the students had to perform.
Now when I say that the students had to rescue, I don’t mean they had to pull a fifty pound dummy out of the house. Most of the students were required to pull an instructor out of the house. Now I am one of the smaller instructors and weigh about $2.25 with out an extra 100lbs of gear, and when the students tried to pull me out, I would try to stay in the house. I figure if it happens in real life, why shouldn’t it happen in training.
After lunch we start the live fire training. We set up small piles of wood, (cribs as they are called in the fire service) in a dozen different locations in the house. We then light one and have a group of students come in and watch it build, then put it out before it gets too hot.
One of the last things we do before we let the house burn down is to let any student’s interested watch a rollover. A rollover is when the gasses at the top of the room combust and a line of fire rolls across the room. A video of a roll over can be found at http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jb6Jyh37V-w
Just remember that the flame you see rolling across the screen are only about 2-3 feet above the firefighters heads.
I welcome any and all comments, questions and concerns.
Special thanks to www.hamptonsfire.blogspot.com for the use of the Youtube video.
The picture above is one of the last classes I helped with. (Click on the picture for a larger view)
The day started at 7a.m. The first thing we did was to smoke the house with burning hay in a big barrel. That provided limited visibility for the search and rescue that all the students had to perform.
Now when I say that the students had to rescue, I don’t mean they had to pull a fifty pound dummy out of the house. Most of the students were required to pull an instructor out of the house. Now I am one of the smaller instructors and weigh about $2.25 with out an extra 100lbs of gear, and when the students tried to pull me out, I would try to stay in the house. I figure if it happens in real life, why shouldn’t it happen in training.
After lunch we start the live fire training. We set up small piles of wood, (cribs as they are called in the fire service) in a dozen different locations in the house. We then light one and have a group of students come in and watch it build, then put it out before it gets too hot.
One of the last things we do before we let the house burn down is to let any student’s interested watch a rollover. A rollover is when the gasses at the top of the room combust and a line of fire rolls across the room. A video of a roll over can be found at http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jb6Jyh37V-w
Just remember that the flame you see rolling across the screen are only about 2-3 feet above the firefighters heads.
I welcome any and all comments, questions and concerns.
Special thanks to www.hamptonsfire.blogspot.com for the use of the Youtube video.
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