ARFF Complete, its all south from here...

So Today We took out final ARFF FAA/IFSAC Certification test. Well, some of us took the IFSAC. Unfortunately Since I do not have Fire II Cert. from Proboard and MA won't let me get it through their fire academy, I only took the FAA test. So I don't know what that really means in the big scheme of things, but it was a fun and cool class none the less. MA won't let you go to their Fire Academy to earn certifications unless you are on a Fire Department. Since I live in a city that only has a full time department, I can't earn that cert. No worries, If I get a Fire II cert within a year, I can always test for IFSAC. We'll see.

The past few days we did a quick tools class, which really is just the same as the tools class one gets in Fire 1. It really isn't anything cool or special. Except, that we had free reign over the parking lot. They have cars and truck and RV's to chop up. So we did a little of that. As you can see




We also did a quick driving course to familiarize us with the trucks. They had us "cool" tanks by applying water and had us flow foam into a pit filled with red dye. If you made the foam pink, you knew that you were applying the foam wrong, and you were churning up the "fuel" rather than covering it. Here are a couple photos of that stuff.

So the very next day after tools, we did an active simulator fire. Basically, we were broken into 4 groups, each group did 3 attacks on the simulator. The groups were made up of 6 people. The "Tower" dispatches both units to a plane crash, unknown fuel amount and unknown if passengers are trapped. As part of the drill, you roll up and put out the fire along the outside of the plane. Then once you knock enough of that down, you move in for a interior attack. The teams are broken down to 4 people, 1 on hose, 2 on rescue, 1 as interior command/hose. You have to throw a ladder, and then open the side door of the plane. The crew goes in and fights the fire along the inside of the fuselage, rescues the 185 pound victim, shuts off the "engines" and vents the airplane. Outside the rigs pump the water and one of the rigs cools the fuselage exterior, so it gets cooler inside for the crew. Don't get me wrong I love to be in a hot fire, (tower knows what I was going to say here, got to keep this blog pg-13), but the fuselage is one giant cigar tube. If there is fire in it, it is really hot because it does not vent like a house does. Airplanes are more airtight. I don't have any footage of the inside, yet. I hear rumors that the DIA guys have a camera on the inside so you can see what is going on. But here are some pictures to hold you guys all over. Enjoy. Tomorrow I do Raytheon Orientation...and Saturday is the big travel day. So if you have my cell phone number, hit me up. Phone goes off for the next 6 months Saturday.


Interior of plane

Red 1 attacking the Fire