Training under fire

A single, forcible swing of the axe pulverized the front door, allowing the firefighters access to the smoke-choked house. A Bloomington Fire Department engine company had arrived to the residence on the corner of 18th and Dunn streets minutes after emergency dispatch received a frantic call from a student. She had been studying in the living room when she noticed smoke drifting from upstairs. The caller was sure her roommate was upstairs when the fire started and hadn't made it out. \nThe fire suppression team snaps on their masks and oxygen tanks, then disappear into the consuming darkness moments after the door gives, dragging a thick hose.\nA second group follows behind the suppression team, their only goal being to get people trapped in the heat and smoke out alive.\n"When we go in, we aren't necessarily there to fight the fire," said Capt. Nick Teeters, a member of his battalions' search and rescue team. "We head straight to where we've been told the person still in the house may be; our number one priority is rescue." \nA series of blazes, which began Tuesday, were strategically built by firefighters to practice dousing fires, finding victims and getting them out safely, said Rob Stumpf, battalion chief of training. \n"We started the fires using wood palettes and straw," he said. "It makes for a pretty clean burn, as far as fires go."\nThis was the fifth exercise of the day, and the 17th in the last three days, all from the same two-story white house. A half-hour later, firefighters dragged another student, represented by a 150-pound black dummy made of sand, from fast encroaching flames.\nEvery BFD engine company got the chance to tackle at least one scenario, and the training ended Thursday when firefighters ignited the house and allowed it to burn to the ground. This was only the second live fire exercise BFD has had in the last eight years because it is rare to find a house far enough away from other buildings the department can use, Stumpf said. The house was donated by Dunnhill Apartments, which helped both parties since Dunnhill saved on demolition costs.\nEach exercise began with engine companies taking a walkthrough of the house. A scenario giving the firefighters all the information they would have from a 911 call was read aloud, but they were not given the location of the fires or victims, Stumpf said.\nThe fire suppression team, made up of three firefighters manning a hose, was the first to enter the house in the scenarios, breaching the door minutes after the fires was ignited.\n"(The suppression teams) go right to the origin of the fire and hit it with water," said BFD Fire Chief Jeff Barlow. "The hoses pump out 1,200 gallons per minute."\nThe next group that would rush into the fray was the search and rescue team, who use their sense of touch and hi-tech thermal imaging cameras to find those in need of help because of the low visibility.\n"They can use the cameras to see right through the smoke and look for victims," Stumpf said. "They're a godsend."\nOne firefighter sweeps rooms with a thermal camera while the other two members of the team search for victims by feeling around in the darkness for them.\n"Most fires we are called to happen at night," Teeters said. "It's also hard to see because of the smoke, so you usually have to establish a search pattern. You circle right, or circle left, depending on the layout of the room. You do everything by feel unless you have the thermal imager."\nAll the groups inside are backed up by a third team, which stands by in case a firefighter gets into danger while fighting the fire.\n-- Contact City & State Editor Mike Wilson at mhwilson@indiana.edu.