CHULA VISTA, California -
Intense heat, pulling a hose with thousands of pounds of water rushing through it and running into burning buildings. A pretty common occurrence in the life of a firefighter. A life many of us have never experienced, until Fire Ops 101.
"It was brutal, you really do not have a real appreciation of what they really go through," said blue team member Humberto Peraza, District Chief of Staff for United States Congressman Bob Filner. "You got out there and you start taking roofs off of cars, you started crawling through an area or a room that you couldn't see anything in. This really gave you an appreciation for what these firefighters do and how they protect us every single day."
Fire Ops 101 takes community members and allows them to experience what firefighters go through on a daily basis.
"It is a collaborative effort between our union and the fire department to show off and demonstrate to various participants what we do," said Chula Vista Fire Chief Dave Hanneman.
The day begins with 13 participants collecting their gear. From head to toe, every inch of skin must be covered. There is the helmet and goggles, face mask, hood, protective clothing or turnouts, gloves, and sturdy boots. Throw in the B.A. or breathing apparatus and it is 50 pounds of fire equipment that must be worn nearly all the time.
"You're in decent shape and you come out here and you put on 50 pounds of equipment, you're really working out," said Peraza.
Divided into four teams, yellow, red, green and blue, he and the others work their way through four emergency scenarios. The red team starts with fire behavior. A small house is set ablaze and team members experience a rollover, fire crawling up a wall and spreading across the ceiling. A minute or two later a flashover, a room erupting into flames almost simultaneously.
"There's just a lot of heat and even with all the protective gear I could feel," said red team member Kelly Bacon, Chula Vista's Human Resources Director. "I could feel the heat on my ears and we had all the protective gear on us."
Between each exercise, personnel check each participant's blood pressure to make sure they are doing okay. Safety for firefighters, whether real or simulated is of the utmost importance.
Next up for the red team, a CPR scenario. Team members receive a quick run through on CPR in a classroom, and then are led outside. After a brief ride on a fire truck, team members return to find a "victim" lying on a sidewalk...the result of a car crash. It is the team's job to administer CPR until an ambulance arrives and then continue rescue breathing as the "victim" is rushed to the hospital. Team members explain what made the task difficult.
"When you first start off and you're in your gear and you're doing the compressions, you think...oh this isn't too bad," said Bacon. "Very quickly, within a couple of minutes you start realizing okay, this is going to get...you're going to wear out."
"Once we got the victim into the ambulance it was so crowded and you were in your suit," explained red team member Scott Tulloch, Chula Vista Assistant City Manager. "And if they would turn or stop, it was hard to keep your balance in there so I found, once we got into the vehicle, that I was sweating and exhausted very quickly trying to do that."
CPR completed, blood pressure checked and it is off to the next task. The team heads to search and rescue, hose advancement.
"Some of the participants with us decided I'm not doing this part," said Peraza. "It was too much for them, once we got into some of those rooms. This wasn't easy at all, for anybody."
Scenario three, a building is on fire and it is up to the team of three to drag a hose to the third floor and locate a victim still trapped inside one of the rooms. Only problem, the room is filled with smoke and it is windowless. They can not leave, until they find the victim.
"You know your heart starts racing and you start getting pumped up when you go into a room that is filled with smoke and you're following the hose and trying to follow the wall and you can't see anything. It's definitely intense," said Bacon.
"You couldn't see anything, and they teach you to keep one hand on the wall so that you don't lose track of where you are and you work your way around the room, " said Tulloch. "You have the breathing apparatus on so you can't see, you can't hear so it is really difficult to communicate and it is strenuous and you have to breathe through that mask. I found that really physically demanding."
If this had been a real incident, the team would not have been able to go in until another fire truck had arrived. In California, there must be at least four firefighters on hand for the rescue. Two to go in, and two to be ready if something should go wrong. In the city of Chula Vista, most stations only have 3 firefighters on duty at one time. It is a problem Chula Vista city leaders are trying to address.
Time for the final task, but first another blood pressure check.
Task four, auto extrication. A "victim" is trapped in a car and the team must get to them quickly to assure that if they are seriously hurt, they get them to the hospital in under an hour for trauma care. Emergency personnel call it the "golden hour". After an hour, they are less likely to survive. The team uses various tools to pop the car's tires, break the glass, get the doors off and cut the roof off.
Final task is completed and so is Fire Ops 101.
"This actually gives me a much better appreciation when they are talking about why they need the number of people they need for a certain incident or on a certain piece of equipment," said Tulloch. "I've got a much better sense of what that is now and it will help us in that prioritization process."
"You have a much better understanding of what they do and you truly appreciate every single thing that they do" said Peraza.
"It was brutal, you really do not have a real appreciation of what they really go through," said blue team member Humberto Peraza, District Chief of Staff for United States Congressman Bob Filner. "You got out there and you start taking roofs off of cars, you started crawling through an area or a room that you couldn't see anything in. This really gave you an appreciation for what these firefighters do and how they protect us every single day."
Fire Ops 101 takes community members and allows them to experience what firefighters go through on a daily basis.
"It is a collaborative effort between our union and the fire department to show off and demonstrate to various participants what we do," said Chula Vista Fire Chief Dave Hanneman.
The day begins with 13 participants collecting their gear. From head to toe, every inch of skin must be covered. There is the helmet and goggles, face mask, hood, protective clothing or turnouts, gloves, and sturdy boots. Throw in the B.A. or breathing apparatus and it is 50 pounds of fire equipment that must be worn nearly all the time.
"You're in decent shape and you come out here and you put on 50 pounds of equipment, you're really working out," said Peraza.
Divided into four teams, yellow, red, green and blue, he and the others work their way through four emergency scenarios. The red team starts with fire behavior. A small house is set ablaze and team members experience a rollover, fire crawling up a wall and spreading across the ceiling. A minute or two later a flashover, a room erupting into flames almost simultaneously.
"There's just a lot of heat and even with all the protective gear I could feel," said red team member Kelly Bacon, Chula Vista's Human Resources Director. "I could feel the heat on my ears and we had all the protective gear on us."
Between each exercise, personnel check each participant's blood pressure to make sure they are doing okay. Safety for firefighters, whether real or simulated is of the utmost importance.
Next up for the red team, a CPR scenario. Team members receive a quick run through on CPR in a classroom, and then are led outside. After a brief ride on a fire truck, team members return to find a "victim" lying on a sidewalk...the result of a car crash. It is the team's job to administer CPR until an ambulance arrives and then continue rescue breathing as the "victim" is rushed to the hospital. Team members explain what made the task difficult.
"When you first start off and you're in your gear and you're doing the compressions, you think...oh this isn't too bad," said Bacon. "Very quickly, within a couple of minutes you start realizing okay, this is going to get...you're going to wear out."
"Once we got the victim into the ambulance it was so crowded and you were in your suit," explained red team member Scott Tulloch, Chula Vista Assistant City Manager. "And if they would turn or stop, it was hard to keep your balance in there so I found, once we got into the vehicle, that I was sweating and exhausted very quickly trying to do that."
CPR completed, blood pressure checked and it is off to the next task. The team heads to search and rescue, hose advancement.
"Some of the participants with us decided I'm not doing this part," said Peraza. "It was too much for them, once we got into some of those rooms. This wasn't easy at all, for anybody."
Scenario three, a building is on fire and it is up to the team of three to drag a hose to the third floor and locate a victim still trapped inside one of the rooms. Only problem, the room is filled with smoke and it is windowless. They can not leave, until they find the victim.
"You know your heart starts racing and you start getting pumped up when you go into a room that is filled with smoke and you're following the hose and trying to follow the wall and you can't see anything. It's definitely intense," said Bacon.
"You couldn't see anything, and they teach you to keep one hand on the wall so that you don't lose track of where you are and you work your way around the room, " said Tulloch. "You have the breathing apparatus on so you can't see, you can't hear so it is really difficult to communicate and it is strenuous and you have to breathe through that mask. I found that really physically demanding."
If this had been a real incident, the team would not have been able to go in until another fire truck had arrived. In California, there must be at least four firefighters on hand for the rescue. Two to go in, and two to be ready if something should go wrong. In the city of Chula Vista, most stations only have 3 firefighters on duty at one time. It is a problem Chula Vista city leaders are trying to address.
Time for the final task, but first another blood pressure check.
Task four, auto extrication. A "victim" is trapped in a car and the team must get to them quickly to assure that if they are seriously hurt, they get them to the hospital in under an hour for trauma care. Emergency personnel call it the "golden hour". After an hour, they are less likely to survive. The team uses various tools to pop the car's tires, break the glass, get the doors off and cut the roof off.
Final task is completed and so is Fire Ops 101.
"This actually gives me a much better appreciation when they are talking about why they need the number of people they need for a certain incident or on a certain piece of equipment," said Tulloch. "I've got a much better sense of what that is now and it will help us in that prioritization process."
"You have a much better understanding of what they do and you truly appreciate every single thing that they do" said Peraza.
