FeedsPractice makes perfect
Fire departments team up for special drills
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Lt. Fred Gilstorff (above, left) gave out pointers during the training exercise on Friday.“Fire department! Is anyone in there?” The voice called through an inky hallway choked with smoke.
Moments later came another call: “I’ve got one! Down here!”
There was a rustle of movement, then grunts as the two men dragged a prone body back toward the waiting stairs, and salvation.
The body this time wasn’t a living person, but an 180-pound dummy. The smoke wasn’t real, either—it was pumped into the cramped hallway to simulate the effects of a genuine fire and the conditions in which firefighters might be called to hunt for survivors. This was just a training exercise and members of the Wayne and Westland fire departments were perfecting their trade.
“It’s all about getting things down pat,” said Dave Wylie, a Wayne firefighter. “We need to learn to work with other departments.”
The firefighters were assembled at the Historic Wayne Theater on Michigan Avenue, an 80-year-old structure that will son be torn down. In the meantime, it provides the perfect training ground for a number of drills—from rappelling from the roof or balcony to the search and rescue trips that took place in the hallway beneath the stage.
For that, black cloth was draped across the entrance and firefighters were forced to crawl through the darkness in search of ‘victims.’
“It’s actually set up like an apartment building,” said Lt. Fred Gilstorff of the Wayne Department. He oversaw the exercise. “There are rooms staggered on either side; it’s a good rescue scenario.”
The training exercise allowed firefighters to practice techniques they wouldn’t otherwise be able to, such as repelling from tall structures or over interior spaces like the theater balcony. They worked on safety survival skills and they worked on communication—which is very important in the age of automatic mutual aid, according to Gilstorff.
“It’s an all around good deal,” he said. “The more we do it, the better off we’ll be. There isn’t always a lot of opportunity for us to practice like this and keep up on our skills.”
The impromptu simulator provides a real-world experience, said Gilstorff—except in a real fire situation temperatures can easily climb 500 degrees hotter than the unventilated concrete hallway was on the hot summer day. Gilstorff followed teams of two or three firefighters, armed with a water-filled hose, down into the basement. He watched their actions through a thermal imaging camera so sensitive it showed the friction of their movements as a bright wavering line and then offered pointers after their successful rescues.
“It’s a very realistic environment,” he said.
The ‘victims’ weigh as much as an average person, he said. Since they are completely inert, they simulate an unconscious person to perfection.
“They don’t help,” joked Wayne Firefighter Kevin Brookshire, Jr.
“It’s a good experience,” he added of the exercise. “We have to practice like we play.”
