Category: Transport

Source: US State of Wyoming

Wyoming Army and Air National Guard team up for first-ever firefighting exercise

Wyoming Air National Guard

By Airman 1st Class Michael Swingen 

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Camp Guernsey Joint Training Center is home to semi-arid scrubland, prairie grass, and conifer cover, all of which can be primed for fire during hot, dry conditions, especially when troops shoot round after round of heavy artillery at the camp’s vast impact area.

Due to this heightened risk, the firefighters in the camp’s Army National Guard Fire Department specialize in practices and techniques unique to wildland firefighting. A usual day can consist of prescribed burns, which is the controlled use of fire to clear downed trees, control plant diseases, and create fire breaks between the camp’s training ranges and neighboring properties.

So, when Camp Guernsey’s Fire Chief received an invitation to conduct a joint training exercise with the 153rd Airlift Wing, a unit of the Wyoming Air National Guard in nearby Cheyenne, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Leah Urquhart jumped at the chance for her firefighters to brush up on skills they don’t use on a day-to-day basis.

Eight firefighters made the 65-mile trip south to Cheyenne for the 6-day joint training exercise. It was the first collaborative training of its kind between the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard nationwide.

“As firefighters, we have to meet yearly training requirements to keep our certifications,” Urquhart said. “You also hit a lot of the same, but more in-depth training to get certified in the first place. We have three guys on the Army side who are working towards their initial certifications. They are stoked to have this training.”

The first day focused on gear familiarization. For firefighters who focus on structural fires, like burning buildings, the Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus, or SCBA, is an essential piece of equipment that provides a supply of breathable air from a compressed air cylinder.

Although not required for wildland firefighting, firefighters from Camp Guernsey readjusted to the equipment, tugging at the elastic facemask straps while hopping into trousers.

The SCBA has four main components, the first being the backplate with shoulder straps and a waistbelt. The second is the air cylinder itself, which weighs 16-20 pounds, contains 4,500 psi of compressed air, and provides 30-60 minutes of breathing time for firefighters.

The third component is the regulator assembly. The compressed air from the cylinder tank travels through a hose and the regulator assembly, which drops the air pressure to levels slightly above atmospheric. Once its breathable, the air hits the facemask.

The facemask is the last component. When a firefighter inhales, the pressure in the facemask is lowered, tilting the admission valve just enough to allow the breathable air into the facemask. The exhalation valve, located on the chin, releases a breath without allowing any outside contaminants to enter.

Every assembly also has a Personal Alert Safety System, or PASS device, that sounds a distress signal if it does not detect motion for 30 seconds, alerting nearby firefighters of a downed firefighter in need of rescue. (This is why standing firefighters periodically shimmy-shake, resetting the countdown.) Also, the PASS device features a gage that indicates pressure levels in the air cylinder.

Gear familiarization culminated in what is called a SCBA confidence course, which tests a firefighter’s knowledge and expertise with the equipment.

Urquhart and her team leaders also incorporated elements of search and rescue into the course. They disassembled the SCBA gear, scattering it around the bunkroom of the firehouse, as if the equipment were incapacitated victims. They then created an obstacle course.

The firefighters in training were hooded to simulate the lack of visibility in a smoke-filled room.

As they crawled on their hands and knees around the obstacle course, the instructors yelled, played loud music, and banged on lockers. Calmly, the firefighters communicated above the din of music and the clamor and clang. Once they all located their equipment, they reassembled it slowly by touch.

Finally, the firefighters paired up to connect a buddy breather to each other’s SCBA. A buddy breather is an accessory hose that allows two firefighters to share the same air supply, in the event one of them is depleted. They then exited the obstacle course.

For an experienced firefighter, a SCBA confidence course can take about an hour to complete. For a firefighter in training, it can take much longer.

“The course is as much about teamwork as it is about familiarity with your gear,” Urquhart said. “Our Army guys from Camp Guernsey performed really well. We got to see what to do from here and how to improve. They were super motivated.”

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Beau Murphy helped lead the vehicle extrication training the next day. Vehicle extrication is the process of safely removing a patient from an automobile involved in a collision. The firefighters traveled to a local salvage yard at the edge of town where cars lay on cinderblocks and cranes grazed in the background with their long necks. Two old cars were waiting for them.

“We folded the Army guys right into our ranks,” Murphy said. “We were happy to have them along.”

As real-time goes up at the scene of an emergency, patient survivability rate goes down. For that reason, effective time management is crucial for first responders, with vehicle extrication ideally taking no longer than 10 minutes.

After staging their hydraulic tools nearby, two firefighters knelt on each side of the car, tucking wheel chocks under its belly to stabilize it. They swept around the car, one moving around it clockwise, the other counterclockwise, in opposing circles, punching out glass, razorblading seatbelts, peeling back molding, marking cut locations, and popping tires. These steps should take no longer than two minutes.

A Halligan bar is a tool used by firefighters for forced entry. A firefighter used one to pry off the grille, exposing the hood latch. He held the fork of the Halligan bar around it and twisted. He popped the hood, cut the battery cables, and closed it again. After prepping the car, they retrieved their hydraulic tools to begin chopping it up.

The group of hydraulic tools used by firefighters in a vehicle extrication are known as the Jaws of Life. They include cutters, spreaders, and rams. These tools use hydraulic pressure to create immense force, allowing them to slice through metal, spread vehicle doors, and lift heavy objects.

The car was ready for door removal. A firefighter used the spreader to push apart the fender of the car, exposing the two door hinges. He spread them to their breaking point. He then jiggled the door from its place and walked it out of the scene, setting it down carefully, paint to pavement. The door cannot be set down otherwise. If an airbag inadvertently deploys, it could launch the door into the sky.

With access to the patient now, a firefighter would begin to administer first aid, if necessary.

“Weather conditions can change how you do things,” Murphy said. “Down in Georgia, you worry about heat injuries. Up here, you deal with cold injuries, like complicating shock. Or if the car is on an incline and it’s crazy icy, you’ve got to get creative with vehicle stability.”

The firefighters began to cut through the pillars of the roof. The cutters have clawlike blades, pulling the metal back to their pivot point where the greatest force is generated. As the firefighters swept around the car, biting through metal, the goal was to move forward, never backward, which increases the time at the scene of an emergency. They peeled off the roof.

“We call this turning it into a convertible,” Murphy said.

When a car is crushed like an accordion, a patient’s lower body may become pinched under the dashboard. The technique by which firefighters extricate the lower body is called a dash roll. That was their next step.

A firefighter made relief cuts around the dashboard, freeing it up. He grabbed the spreader and began to lift the dashboard. The firefighter then wedged the ram between the dashboard and the floor of the car. As the ram extended, the dashboard rolled onto itself, creating ample space for the lower body to be extricated.

“These guys got a lot of really good hands-on experience and tool time,” Murphy said. “That’s what I’m looking for: proficiency with the equipment.”

They worked on more trainings in the following days. Their necks craned, they toured the cargo compartment and flight deck of a Lockheed C-130 Hercules, a massive, gunmetal gray transport aircraft. They did a lot of bunker drills, where firefighters practice putting on their protective clothing and SCBA gear in a timed manner.

“They’re standing over their gear, and we yell, ‘Bunker drill, bunker drill, bunker drill!’” Urquhart said. “After two hours of doing that, the slowest guy was able to get down to a minute and 45 seconds. Really scary, crazy timeline when you think about all the gear you have to put on.”

They consolidated their training with a structural fire exercise on the last day. It took place in an abandoned building on base with tables and chairs still in place, as if the building was vacated only a moment ago. Two large fog machines emitted a dense vapor that looked like smoke, clouding over the wide bays and office rooms. Visibility was very low.

In the building were two victims in need of rescue. For the exercise, four firefighters manned the fire truck, two firefighters were search and rescue, and two firefighters were the Rapid Intervention Team, or RIT crew, who are on standby if firefighters become lost, trapped, or injured and need rescuing themselves.

Urquhart and other team leaders walked around the building, observing how the firefighters used their training. They would go through three rotations of the exercise.

Oftentimes, a firefighter goes into a burning building blind, literally and figuratively. Before the parking brake on the fire truck gets pulled, they are already thinking of structures that resemble the one that is on fire. Understanding building construction can help predict how the fire will spread, while having an idea of the floorplan and layout can help locate a victim.

When they arrive on the scene, the highest-ranking firefighter does what is called a size up. He observes the exterior of the structure for indications of the size and location of the fire. The color of the smoke can also indicate the type of fuel being burned, the phase of the fire, and where the fire will spread. If the building shows no potential for collapse, he identifies means of entry and escape routes, like doors, windows, and fire escapes. After making his assessment, the firefighter radios it in to forward command.

They then look for clues for who could be inside, like window lights still on, toys in the backyard, cars in the parking lot, or even a car-window sticker depicting stick figure versions of family members. But they always remain ready for the unexpected.

“When you get on scene to a structural fire, you’re typically going to have anywhere from one to 50 different things going on,” Urquhart said.

The exercise used a digital fire training system. A screen emitting LED-driven flames glowed in one of the smoke-filled rooms of the building. The firefighters were equipped with a digital nozzle.

In the building they crawled on their hands and knees towards the seat of the fire as they looked for victims at the same time. Thermal layering of the heat and the buoyancy of the smoke will create clearer vision just above floor level, while also being cooler.

Instead of slowly fighting their way towards the seat of the fire, firefighters begin their attack at its point of origin and move outwards from there. This also allows them to locate potential victims who may be in the greatest danger.

Once the firefighters located the fire’s ignition point and steadied their digital nozzle, the orange-glowing panels on the LED screen slowly dimmed.

As they went through different rotations of the exercise, Urquhart and her team leaders would mix it up.

“We told a firefighter during one scenario, ‘Hey, you’re down. You ended up passing out. Let your PASS alarm go off,’” Urquhart said. “Now, there’s a firefighter who found a victim, but also his partner went down, which is a very possible real-life situation. Now what do you do? So we watched him work through the process of getting both people out.”

As the firefighters crawled through the smoke-filled building, they sounded the floor, tapping a tool on it. In a real-life scenario, if the floor feels too spongy or breaks through, they go another way.

When a team came to a door, they felt it with the back of their hand. They located the handle and opened the door and shut it behind them, shielding themselves from fire spread. They hugged the wall as they made their way around the room, looking for victims. They swept a bunkbed, felt under a table, and handled a chair. Like the house of a person who is blind, they never misplaced things, which can become disorienting. Anchored to the wall, they extended themselves across the floor and swept the center of the room with a tool, furthering their reach.

They found a victim. They checked his status through physical contact. Radioing it in to forward command, they stated they located a victim, his status, what they planned to do, and if they needed help. They webbed the victim with nylon straps and dragged him to the door, careful to keep his head and shoulders elevated. In the hallway, they followed the hose line until they were back outside.

“We were planning to do three different rotations of the exercise in a four-hour time slot,” Urquhart said. “We were able to do four with still time to spare because everybody was so motivated and efficient at doing their job. You don’t see that all the time.”

By the end of the week, the joint training exercise created a strong partnership between the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard Fire Departments, while ensuring both units are better prepared and proficient in their firefighting roles.

U.S. Army Pvt. Cody Carr, for example, wasted no time in applying the skills he learned during the week of training in a real-life situation. The first night back home, Carr and his fire department responded to an emergency call for a chimney fire. Carr was standing outside the burning building in the cold night when a mayday went out over the radio. The chimney had collapsed on the two firefighters inside. Without thinking, Carr threw his gear on, went on air, found a teammate, and rushed inside.

“Going into it, I’m like, I’m ready for this. I just learned all this. I can use my knowledge and get them out very quickly,” Carr said.

Carr and his teammate followed the hose line to the smoking rubble. As they began to pull the brick and mortar off one firefighter, another began shouting from the other side of the room. Carr rushed to the yelling firefighter and checked his status. Carr hoisted him up and dragged him out of the burning building and to safety.

“It was all fresh in my mind,” Carr said. “Just got done doing it. I was able to put it in play.”

Carr is looking forward to further collaboration between the 153rd Airlift Wing and Camp Guernsey Joint Training Center. Future plans include sending firefighters up to Camp Guernsey to get certified in wildland firefighting.

“It was amazing to watch the Army and Air Guard learn from each other over this training,” Urquhart said. “This is just the beginning of a fantastic relationship.”