East Jefferson Fire Rescue conducted live training on an uninhabitable residential structure on Tuesday. Staging for exercises started about 8 a.m. Focused exercises took place in different sections of the house, one crew at a time, throughout the day.
In addition to the East Jefferson Fire Rescue’s (EJFR) two off-duty crews being onsite, two Navy fire crews participated in the training. The road leading up to the home, on the 1000 block of Umatilla Avenue, was cordoned off on either end. Small fires were set in different sections of the house by instructors, and dummy victims were placed for rescue, EJFR Fire Chief Bret Black said.
“Their objective is to find the victim to put the fire out and communicate with command,” Black said. “We have a very choreographed and scripted process of how we do that. It’s about fine-tuning our craft of that communication, the tactics.” Coordinating the movement of fire hoses as a team takes practice. They are heavy, a hundred PSI or more, a couple hundred gallons a minute, Black said.
As crews entered the home, black smoke billowed into the sky before settling over the Port Townsend residential neighborhood. Crews spent five to 10 minutes at a time in the home, which lacked visibility, Black said. “We’re practicing using our thermal imagers,” he continued. “They do know the layout, that’s the law. They don’t know where the fire is.”
Peninsula Daily News – Metered Site
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