Happy Monday!

I will continue today with the house burn from Saturday.  My thanks again to Chief Mark Beck and the Maquoketa Fire Department for allowing me access to their fire training session.  It was a lot of fun and brought back some vivid memories.

Of course the rational for training in these kind of conditions is so that it becomes more routine and when faced with the actual event when the adrenaline is high you don’t make mistakes or delay that could put your fellow fire fighter in additional danger.

Checking each others air tank is essential when getting ready to enter a smoke-filled structure.

Practicing alternate techniques for forced entry into a building is essential.  You can see the amount of gear these firemen have on and I remind you that the temperature was hovering around 80 degrees, so it was uncomfortable for them wearing all that protective gear.

Practicing search and rescue.  When I was in Public Safety we would cover the inside of the smoke mask with cardboard to simulate a smoke-filled room and then you would follow the hose or lay a rope line, so you could find your way out of the structure.

Mark said the department has a smoke making machine so their training is much more realistic.

One last team discussion before setting the structure on fire.  I was impressed with the organization and planning of the burn.  Mark discussed many of the behind the scenes preparation and the rationale for some of the training which really helped me understand what was going on.

Later in subsequent posts I’ll show you what all the planning yielded.  It was impressive.

That’s it for today.  More of the fire scene tomorrow and as the days follow.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day.  Stay dry and be careful.