Editor’s Note: One of the most challenging tasks facing today’s fire service is how to effectively prepare and train today’s firefighters. The following article has been designed to provide an overview of just a few ideas and concepts currently being employed by fire departments/academies across the country. It’s our hope that one or more of these simulators/props might spark an idea or help deliver a more effective message to your firefighters during an upcoming training session. Remember, all training should be conducted in compliance with applicable safety standards: Realism should not trump safety!
–Timothy E. Sendelbach
SPOKANE FIELD HOUSE
Spokane, Wash.
By Fire Chief Bobby Williams, City of Spokane Fire Department
In 1989, the Spokane Fire Department (SFD) initiated a plan to partner with other emergency response agencies to construct a training facility that would prepare emergency personnel to respond to all types of disasters. Combining resources would enhance the facilities beyond what each agency could do separately, improve training capabilities, develop and encourage interagency cooperation and communications and maximize the use of public funds.
When voters approved the 1989 Fire Department Bond, a portion of the funding was directed toward making this plan a reality. A 23-acre site east of Spokane Community College was purchased, and the first buildings constructed on the site included a fire station, a vehicle maintenance shop and a burn building.
Today the 23-acre SFD Regional Readiness Complex is home to a wide variety of SFD support functions, including Fire Station No. 8; a combined communications building, which houses the city/county 911 call center, as well as police, sheriff and countywide fire/EMS dispatch; a USAR collapse rubble prop; a tech rescue skills prop; an underground confined space prop; a burn building; hazmat and railroad props; a drivers’ skills course area; a vehicle maintenance facility; the Washington State Department of Military Readiness Center; and training offices and classroom buildings, plus the city/county emergency operations center.
The cornerstone of the campus is the 26,126-square-foot Field House, a five-story structure that contains a building within a building to provide for year-round training even in inclement weather.
The Field House, which was completed in 2002, was funded by the 1999 Fire Bond issue at a cost of approximately $2.3 million.
The Field House is divided into three general areas: 1) a five-story training building; 2) a 7,500-square-foot open-space floor designed to act as a training area and to accommodate two operating fire apparatus; and 3) a support area for SCBA filling/storage, PPE storage/cleaning and restroom/shower facilities.
A vehicle exhaust system is built into the floor that allows indoor pumping or aerial operations. Also within the building is a portable roof prop for ladder and ventilation exercises at multiple pitches.
Designed to provide maximum flexibility, the five-story training building has an enclosed stairway with standpipe system. Each floor can be configured differently to simulate various situations. It’s possible to train on rappelling, ground-ladder throwing or aerial-ladder placement both inside and outside the building.
The Field House also allows firefighters to train on the following:
- Search and rescue
- Confined-space rescue (up to four stories)
- Technical rescue
- Hose and ladder evolutions
- Ventilation exercises (roof cutting)
- Multi-company drills
- Interior and exterior rappelling
- Pump operations training
The Field House provides more opportunity for various types of training activities to be conducted concurrently with the other facilities on site, such as the live-fire burn building.
Contact Information
Spokane Field House
Address: 44 W. Riverside Ave.
Spokane, WA 99201
Tel: 509/625-7001
E-mail: bwilliams@spokanefire.org
Web: www.spokanefire.org/training
Bobby Williams is the fire chief of the Spokane Fire Department. Located in eastern Washington, Spokane is the second largest city in the state.
Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Regional Training Center
Palm Beach, Fla.
By Randy & Vicki Sheppard
Palm Beach County Fire Rescue (PBCFR) opened its new training center last year. Built to accommodate the various needs of multiple organizations within the region, the training center was designed to provide safe, controlled and realistic training simulations.
The main facility has five classrooms that can accommodate 40 students each. Each classroom features full technology support, and computerized labs provide state-of-the-art driving simulation, command and control simulation and patient care simulations.
Unique Attraction
The centerpiece of the training center is a six-story training tower with multiple façades: a single-story residential façade with garage and operational roof ventilation prop, a high-rise apartment complex to simulate window and balcony rescues, and a commercial first story and floor garden apartment arrangement on the second floor. The most unique part of the training tower: It includes an elevated-victim-rescue scenario, complete with jib cranes designed to suspend a window-washer prop. The window-washer prop was chosen to simulate some of the most challenging aspects of high-angle rescue scenarios, such as those that could occur during routine maintenance or during hurricane preparation work on mid- and high-rise buildings. The jib cranes can also be used to simulate scenarios that would occur on a construction site where temporary elevators and freight cranes are being used.
Another unique prop: An old ladder from an aerial has been reused to make a stationary aerial prop that allows firefighters to climb to the second story, step over a simulated parapet wall and perform roof operations. Two captains created the prop by pouring a cement pad, cutting the ladder to size and welding support brackets to it to hold it firmly in place.
Additional Features
Behind the main complex is a 10-acre lake that allows firefighters to perfect water-supply operations and flow large amounts of water; it also allows for the return of the water to the lake.
The apparatus building includes a rehabilitation room for ice and food preparation, multiple storage rooms, an SCBA repair shop with fit-testing capabilities, a decontamination room with two 120-lb. bunker gear washers, and five bays with apparatus assigned to the Training and Safety Division (two engines, two rescues, one forklift and two all-terrain vehicles).
Other features of the training center include a Class-A burn building, driving course, flashover simulator, SCBA confidence module, six LP props, specialty areas for confined space, hazmat and extrication scenarios, and an area we call “Disaster Alley,” which features an overturned bus, crashed helicopter and the front of a 727 airplane to train firefighters on various mass-casualty incidents.
Contact Information
Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Regional Training Center
Address: 405 Pike Road, West Palm Beach, FL 33411
Tel: 561/616-7017; Fax: 561/616-7088
Web: www.co.palm-beach.fl.us/fire; www.pbcfr.org/training_construction.asp
Randy Sheppard is the deputy chief and fire marshal for Palm Beach County Fire Rescue and was the project manager during the training center design and construction process.
Vicki Sheppard is the division chief of training and safety, which occupies 30 acres of the 40-acre site.
FDNY High-Rise Simulator
New York, N.Y.
By Battalion Chief Phil Ciaravino & Lt. Joseph Connolly
Considering the abundance of high rises in New York City, the NYC Fire Academy long had a huge void in its training arsenal: Despite having the capabilities to train firefighters on all other types of structures, it didn’t have a high-rise fire training building.
All that has changed now, thanks to a generous donation from the FDNY Foundation (www.fdny foundation.com) and the Leary Foundation (www.learyfirefighters.org). On March 19, the city unveiled a $4.2 million high-rise simulator on Randalls Island, where all FDNY engine and ladder companies will eventually train on fire- and non-fire applications in high-rise structures.
High-Rise Specs
The 4,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art high-rise simulator is a “Class 1” fireproof building that features a fire and flashover simulator, central smoke system, dry standpipe system, mock elevators and three stairways. It also has video hookups on each floor for review and a simulated fire command station, courtesy of Crossfire Inc. The Kidde Fire Training System handles the smoke and fire simulators, which are computer-controlled.
There are also many other scenarios that trainees can practice, including life-saving roof rope rescue, firefighter personal safety escape systems and a wind-driven fire evolution.
The floors in the four-story building are labeled 40—43. The simulator features a dry standpipe system, which is fed through a Siamese in the front of the building via an engine company. The building also has true “scissor” stairs, simulating the city’s housing project buildings. We can set up the building to simulate a high-rise office building or a high-rise multiple dwelling.
The electronic fire control panel helps our battalion chiefs understand building systems and manage HVAC systems. The high-rise fire control panel, located in an authentic-looking lobby, simulates an actual panel found in high-rise buildings regulated by NYC Fire Code (class “E” buildings), complete with a Fire Safety Director’s desk.
The Kidde Fire Training System allows us to select any combination of floors, including the lobby, to fill with smoke. The third floor has a propane-fed, live-fire prop simulating a couch on fire in a bedroom. This prop can get the room temperature up to 750 degrees F, and it shoots flames 8 feet above the couch.
With the press of a button on the trainer’s remote, the system can send fire across the ceiling (giving a rollover effect) and out the entrance door. This teaches our firefighters the importance of controlling the door and staying low to the ground.
The fire room also has an internal stairway, which can simulate either the access stairs to the floor above, common in many high-rise office buildings, or the stairway in a duplex or triplex apartment.
On the fourth floor is another fire prop that simulates fire extension in a wall as well as a plenum space–the area above the ceiling in a commercial occupancy that allows the return of air flow of the HVAC system. This space can allow the spread of fire and smoke, and our ladder companies can check for extension by actually pushing up on one of the hinged panels.
The fourth floor access stairs can also be used the opposite way: to teach a firefighter how to fight a cellar fire or a duplex apartment fire by going down the stairs with a charged hoseline. The instructors can cause a rollover at the ceiling level on the third floor, which puts the fire directly at the descending members. Full firefighting PPE is always required.
A computer monitors an automatic safety system, which limits the amount of burn time (15 minutes) and rollover time (5 seconds). If the room goes over 750 degrees F, the computer will know there’s a problem and automatically engage exhaust fans and shut down the fire(s).
Future Use
We plan on working the drills in this building on a rotating basis. One month we will set up the inside of building as a residential high-rise multiple dwelling, then the next month it will be set up as a high-rise office building. To make it even more realistic, we have actual furniture throughout the building making up different rooms.
This building is versatile and used for many different types of drills. Everyone involved worked hard in the planning and design of this building, which will enable firefighters to hone their skills for many more years to come.
Contact Information–
Leary Foundation
Address: 594 Broadway, Suite 409
New York, NY 10012
Tel: 212/343-0240
Email: info@learyfirefighters.org
Web: www.learyfirefighters.org
Battalion Chief Phil Ciaravino has been with the FDNY for 20 years and is currently assigned as a training coordinator for the Bureau of Training.
Lt. Joseph Connolly has been with the FDNY for 12 years and is currently assigned to the Bureau of Training.
Regional Emergency Services Training Center
Gaston College, N.C.
By Ann Davis & Phil Welch
The cornerstone of the RESTC is the commercial burn building, with five stories and 21,000 square feet of area–one of the largest live-fire structures in the United States.
The Regional Emergency Services Training Center (RESTC) of Gaston College in North Carolina covers more than 50 acres and features areas or props to replicate almost any emergency situation imaginable. The RESTC provides training to career and volunteer firefighters throughout the state, and offers industrial fire brigade programs to participants from across the Southeast. The RESTC is also the host for the bi-annual North Carolina Firefighter Survival School, regarded as one of the most advanced firefighting programs in the country.
The RESTC has two live-fire burn buildings: a residential and commercial burn building. The 1,500-square-foot residential burn building features a three-bedroom ranch-style floor plan. This building is ideal for fire attack, rescue and ventilation training in single-family dwellings.
The Key Component
But the key element of the RESTC is the commercial burn building, with five stories and 21,000 square feet of area–one of the largest live-fire structures in the United States. The larger burn rooms range in size from 20′ x 20′ to 90′ x 30′. The building has 14 separate locations specifically designed for live-fire evolutions and protected by flame-deflection shields. It contains more than 60 doors, greatly enhancing varied training simulations.
Overall, the structure is built of concrete and masonry construction. The outside of the building has a stair-step appearance as it progresses from lower to upper floors. There are two interior stairways with emergency communications and standpipe connections available at every floor landing. These stairways offer the protection of fixed positive pressure ventilation. There is one exterior fire escape servicing all upper floors of the building. And sitting on the roof is a 6-foot-wide 40-hp smoke evacuation fan that can be quickly activated in case of actual emergencies and for building clean-up.
The commercial burn building’s basement was designed to reflect the architectural characteristics of a nuclear power generation facility. This floor includes appropriately sized rooms, wall contours, floor grading and sub-level basins related to this type of facility. The basement offers below-grade access through cellar windows and stairway doors on the A-side and ground-level access via walk-in doors on the C side.
The second floor, which is considered the main floor, has ground-level access on the A and D sides, and requires above-ground access on the B and C sides. This is the largest floor of the burn building. It includes a command room, which houses the alarm system. The alarm system operates interior hardline communication and emergency evacuation equipment. Specialized areas on this floor include a chemical reactor chamber prop behind a parapet wall, a spiral staircase leading to the basement, a large floor grading section, a room with multiple fire sprinklers and two additional large rooms capable of accommodating additional training props.
The third floor has the largest rooms yet. The stairway landing offers three doorways. One leads outside to a single-story terrace, and the other two lead to separate burn rooms and, ultimately, open onto another roof terrace.
The fourth floor is occupied to accommodate varied evolutions in the 1,600-square-foot maze. The two-level maze can be separated into three sections. It includes multiple stairways, duct ways and hatches. It also includes a truss attic simulation for specialized maneuvers.
The top level is primarily for roof operations, including reinforced anchor points, access to exterior fire escapes, fixed roof ladders and a five-story 36″ corrugated pipe leading to the basement through the interior of the building.
Contact Information
Regional Emergency Services Training Center
Address: 201 Hwy 321 South
Dallas, NC 28034
Tel: 704-922-6257
Fax: 704-922-6336
E-mail: davis.ann@gaston.edu
Web: www.gaston.edu/fire
Ann Davis is the RESTC coordinator, with 14 years of experience. She is currently responsible for the overall operation and scheduling of the center.
Phil Welch, who has 30 years of fire service experience, served as the center’s director for more than 18 years. He became fire chief for the City of Gastonia, N.C., earlier this year.
