A day at Cincinnati Fire Operations school is a real eye opener for local politicians and journalists. It's called Fire Ops 101, and it's an annual educational event held by the Cincinnati Fire Department. The goal is to show exactly what firefighters really go through. It gives you a chance to smell the smoke and feel the heat. As Local 12's Rich Jaffe shows us, it gives you a whole new appreciation for what these lifesaving men and women do every day.
The group Rich was assigned to started their day off with the flashover simulator, probably the most visual and perhaps the most frightening aspect of the entire morning. It didn't take long for the beast to start moving. There wasn't much simulating to it... smoke pouring across the ceiling of the building, quickly devoured by real fire, turning it into rolling super heated flames just over our heads. Our protective gear got surprisingly hot, and with good reason-the temperature in the top of the room was over 700 degrees. The heat actually melted the face mask of one person-they were not injured.
One sobering lesson was the fact that this training unit's dedicated to firefighter Oscar Armstrong. He died in a real flashover in 2003. It was a powerful lesson for all of us, one not lost on State Representative Denise Driehaus. "That was hot. WHY DID YOU WANT TO DO THIS? To understand. These guys talk about safety levels, talk about equipment the number of people, I don't understand what that means until you get in there."
Each person had a shadow, an experienced firefighter to keep us safe. Rich's was Mark Flagler. Prior to each scenario, rookies got a briefing. before being plunged into total smoke filled darkness we walked through the burn building. "This is real life saving lives here, don't want anybody being surprised by this... soon as you come through that door here's your stairwell."
When the lights went out, the rookies actually crawled through this building up and down floors, following a hose line. They searched blindly by hand for a victim, then dragged a dummy out. Each evolution teaching the rookies how tough the real job is. "Manpower is everything the more people you can throw at a fire the safer it is for everybody. You've got a lot to cover in a short time and seconds mean everything."
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