| On March 19, 2012 The West Grove Fire Company Volunteers concluded their month long training series of firefighter survival. On this particular drill night the crews were faced with a challenging SCBA confidence course in a vacant single-family dwelling. The training committee utilized multiple pre-constructed obstacles and a fog machine in order to create a zero visibility environment with challenges for the firefighters.
Some of the obstacles each firefighter had to overcome included breaching walls, traversing floor joists, crawling thru a confined space, overcoming entanglement, and crawling over unsteady flooring. Just like a real incident, after each firefighter successfully completed the confidence course they went thru the rehab sector to check vital signs and any injuries.
In order to maintain safety throughout the drill the training committee utilized thermal imaging cameras (TICs) to keep a close eye on each firefighter as they moved through the confidence course. Although the TICs are primarily used for finding victims in a true house fire situation, their use in this drill allowed our training committee to watch, assess and give feedback on each member's performance throughout the course. (See pictures below of our firefighters overcoming the obstacles in zero visibility below).
At the conclusion of the drill night the WGFC members gathered and reviewed the importance of calling a MAYDAY early in the event of firefighter disorientation, entanglement, injury or any other emergency that may occur. |
