In most communities, fires are few and far between.
That’s a good thing for home and business owners, but it makes training tough for firefighters, who often keep their skills sharp through on-the-job training.
With fewer real fires to fight, supplemental training is necessary. In Thunder Bay and for many communities throughout Northwestern Ontario – and even northern Minnesota – this means spending a day or two at the annual FireCon simulations.
Hosted by Thunder Bay Fire Rescue for the past 25 years and centred at their Intercity-area training facility on Hammond Avenue, this year’s event was the largest yet, with more than 100 firefighters taking part over two days of training.
“We’ve never tried to do this many firefighters at once. Our largest was 20, I believe for live fires. This year we’ve taken it to a place where we weren’t comfortable going for a while,” said Fire Chief John Hay, overseeing operations.
“It’s a big, big event for us and we use it as a two for us to manage events too. So if there are big events in town, if there’s a big fire in town or a flood, we’ll be practiced in how to manage them across the city.”
Firefighters were put through six separate simulations, ranging from propane cylinders, automobiles and backyard barbecues going up in flames, to breathing apparatus management to an interior fire breathing smoke and flames.
The fires are all carefully monitored, and used controlled amounts of propane as an accelerant.
With so many fires going at once, and so much than can possibly go wrong, caution is the word of the day, said Hay, praising his trainers as among the best Ontario has to offer.
That’s why they brought in Drager Canada to help with the simulations. They have the equipment to make it happen.
“We can do this all with propane. It’s environmentally friendly, it’s able to be shut off. If something goes wrong we can shut it down immediately,” Hay said. “We have a burn master that’s running the props for us. And that’s how we’re able to put 120 people through.”
Drager’s Joe Drouin said it’s a carefully orchestrated exercise, one that’s as close to an actual fire as possible.
“It’s very close to a real fire environment. We’re working with propane, so we might not get the same temperatures, but the fire approach and the tactics they take are exactly the same. They’re seeing what they need to see,” Drouin said.
“Yes, it is real fire and it’s hot in there. They’re seeing the rollovers that go across the ceiling that will take you to your knees.”
Training continues on Saturday.
