Day 25 - Wednesday 13th December

Fire Prevention and Fire Fighting - Day 2

The 2nd day was a little more involved. The first exercise was called "Search and Rescue", this involved entering the training house in teams of three to find the casualties and bring them out of the house. The only problem was that the house had been filled with simulated smoke which meant that visibility was practically nil. You have to feel your way around the house using hands and feet and try and remember points of reference as you enter so that you can find your way out again. Once you find a casualty, in this case 32kg dummies, two of the team carry them, whilst the other leads the way out. It involves a lot of team work and communication, and considering the dummy was at least half the weight of your average casualty, it really helped me to appreciate how hard it is for fire fighters... and that was even before what I experienced that afternoon.

Our next activity involved entering the same house, but this time there was a huge fire in it!! We entered from an upstairs entrance. It was incredibly hot and dark, and we had to find our way to the top of the staircase to take us down to the fire so we could put it out. We were in teams of three as before and again it was about team work and communication. Once we all got downstairs we were each given a turn using the hose on the fire. It was amazing to see how much steam and heat is generated using water on the fire, so the technique is to aim the hose at the ceiling above the fire in order to cool it down without creating so much steam that it burns you!

All in all it was an amazing experience, that helped us to appreciate exactly what firemen do, as well as help us to be more prepared if we ever experience a real fire first hand, on or off a boat.