Gilroy Fire Department practices tactics and rescue
procedures
Gilroy – A voice rings out over the emergency scanner: There’s a structure fire in the northwest quadrant of the city, all Gilroy engines respond. South County Fire assist.
Two firefighters from Sunrise Station are first to arrive on scene in the rescue unit. A new captain will be tested. A neighbor runs up saying the elderly woman who lives there might be inside. The exercise begins.
“This is where you want to make your mistakes,” said Division Chief Phil King, as he videotaped the two firefighters setting out their equipment outside the Mobile Live Fire training trailer. “This is a very controlled environment. It’s practice for everybody from the firefighters to the division chiefs.”
Once a year the fire department uses a metal two-story house to practice rescue procedures and firefighting tactics they don’t get to use on a daily basis. The heat and amount of smoke are managed by a person in a control room inside the trailer.
“The call is run like a real fire,” King said. “The trick for him is going to be to slow down, think it through and strategize what’s he’s going to do.”
Inside the metal chambers, firefighters may encounter more than 100 computerized sounds such as a baby crying, police sirens or explosives, in addition to temperatures soaring above 600 degrees.
Since the start of the year, firefighters have averaged one structure fire a month. The majority of calls firefighters respond to are medical aid, and keeping firefighting skills sharp requires routine practice.
“It’s a lot if little things that seem redundant or minuscule, but can turn into real big things,” King said. “It’s those little devil’s in the details.”
For instance, firefighters must know the material the building is made of and how it is constructed to help formulate a plan on how to fight it.
During a fire, they communicate using microphones attached to their uniforms with firefighters outside. Talking while wearing an air tank and with radio feedback makes communication with the those outside difficult at best. Throw smoke in the picture and visibility is nonexistent.
A fire at a box plant April 3 left firefighters searching through a warehouse filled with machinery and boxes with visibility so poor they couldn’t see their hands in front of their faces, making locating obstacles and potential victims difficult.
Emergency scenarios are recreated throughout three days so that each crew plays multiple roles as the storylines unfold. Each is different. And each time, there is a discussion on what went wrong and what was done right.
“This is where you get a chance to build confidence so when you get on scene it’s not so foreign and scary,” said Capt. Joshua Valverde. “You know the floor plan. You the know the game. It’s a controlled environment, but you can make it as tough as you want to.”
During a simulation Thursday night Engineer/firefighter Colette Harmon is acting as captain. Her crew is the first to arrive and she gets out of the truck to take a sweep of the building.
“Because what you see from the front is not always what you get in the back,” Valverde explained, as he watched from the side.
At this point, the smoke is three times as high as the trailer.
“She has to make a decision based on her priorities,” he said. “She’s got no one to rescue (the two firefighters inside). Either she can salvage what’s left or she can ventilate. She has to make that choice. We’re a one-shot department. You get there and you’ve got to make it count.”
A fresh wave of firefighters is minutes away.
Everything seemed under control when after a final count, those in charge decided to throw a wrench into the plan, telling Paramedic/firefighter Mario Bena to stay behind on the second floor to practice a rescue for a downed firefighter.
The Gilroy Fire Department has practiced this scenario ever since the death of a Phoenix firefighter who got lost in the smoke during a grocery store fire and died. The program is called Nobody Gets Left Behind.
“Every year, 100 firefighters are killed in the line of duty,” said Paramedic/Firefighter Scott MacDonald, who teaches the class. “A group of guys committed to preventing the next 100 started it.”
Firefighters brought Bena a fresh air tank, attached a strobe light and alarm to him, and dragged his body to the rooftop as flames blocked the exit downstairs. Firefighters formulated a plan to hand his unconscious body over the metal railing of the roof to be carried down a ladder when the exercise was stopped.
“What if we’re in a real situation? You pulled the card, let’s play it,” Valverde insisted. “Let’s see what are we made of.”
Firefighter Randy Wong safely carried Bena down minutes later.
“He’d be hurt, but he’d be alive,” MacDonald said.
