In a burning building...

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Permalink Reply by Capt 723 on April 16, 2009 at 12:18am

It was a long time ago when I was in my first fire but I remember it well. We encountered light, white colored smoke on the way up the stairs to the second floor of a two story house. When we opened the door to the hallway to move to the fire room everything went black instantly. There wasn't much heat that I can remember but I couldn't see a foot in front of my face. It was almost comforting to see the glow of the fire but that too soon left when the line was opened to darken the fire.

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Permalink Reply by Dennis Winterwerp on April 25, 2009 at 7:03pm

My 1st big interior fire in the city went like this. 1st in, show up, fire blowing out the 1st floor. Heavy fire on the porch. If you have a great truck working with you, you can see a bit easier, and it's not as hot. If the truck is not as well, or late showing up/not right on top of one another (volly companies, etc.), it tends to get very hot, and you can't see your hand in front of you. may be able to see the glow, if lucky. But it tends to be very black, very dark, very hot, and confusing and exillerating at the same time. Best job/feeling in the world, wouldn't trade anything for it.

FYI, no knocks on vollys, but volly companys tend to be more spread out than city companys.

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Permalink Reply by MIke Waring on May 30, 2009 at 1:42am

lol.. not where i live

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Permalink Reply by Bobby on July 13, 2009 at 10:44pm

same here, the closest paid dept is 30-45 min away

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Permalink Reply by Bobby on July 13, 2009 at 11:13pm

simply put, HOT and DARK!!! not meaning to be a smart one here, but the rule of crawling below the smoke will cut down on the heat and help with the visibility. Now I'm not sayin that you can see much at all, but you will be able to see your hand in front of your face this way maybe even the wall that you're followin. The heat (depending on how good your gear is) will feel like your sunnin yourself and need to flip. Most of all it will be confusing, very, very, very confusing. You have the roar of the fire, the hiss of your scba, the chatter of the radio, the weight of the ppe and scba, (unless you're a paid guy, then you're used to it) plus you have your tools that you take in with you whether that's the hose, axe, ect. and to top it all off you can't see squat!

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Permalink Reply by Tiffanie Pettis on July 18, 2009 at 4:02pm

i havn't actualy been inside of a "REAL" structure fire but i have gotten the chance to train in burn buildings with real fire and flames...and it does got hot! the fires that we had wern't as hot as most will be but it was still hot enough. the way i would describe it is like laying in the sun an a 100 degree day with a damn thick snow suit on. the worst part for me wasnt the heat but it has the zero visibility from smoke and how hard it is to stay oriented. but it was cool and a bit frightening alll at the same time to to open the door and feel the rush of smoke flames and heat and to see the fire dancing...it is a very real and serious situation to be in but we are all nuts any way thats why we are firefighters.

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Permalink Reply by Jared Eggo on July 25, 2009 at 2:03pm

I can't wait to start live fire training. I'm currently taking Fire I&II.

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Permalink Reply by Battalion Chief Dewey Schmidt on October 19, 2009 at 6:49am

Kayli,

What does a real fire feel like...
I believe you have the general idea.

Now a few items to remember... all your PPE... every part on your SCBA... your buddy... risk a lot to save a lot... risk nothing to save little...

How did you receive your burns?

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Permalink Reply by Kayli Borell on October 20, 2009 at 9:00pm

from a fire. if thts not the answer u were looking for comment me on my FFN page

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