The last session of the Citizens Fire Academy took place at Harris Field which is a Midland Fire Department training facility located a short distance from town where students of the real Fire Academy learn the ropes. They also learn the hoses, the tools, the equipment and everything else they'll need to fight a fire and keep themselves safe.
The training field has lots of structures the instructors can use to to teach firefighting skills. They've got a cinder block house which they load up with hay and set on fire. They've got oil field stuff to simulate the kind of fires that might occur at oil and gas wells, and they've also got a multi story building for high rise practice.
The hoses used by the MFD for fire fighting range from 1.75 to 2.5 inches in diameter. The firefighters first hook up a five inch hose to a hydrant and extend that hose to the truck -- they call it the engine. And the pressure at the engine ranges from 150 pounds for the 1.75 inch hose, pumping 150 gallons per minute, to 68 pounds for the 2.5 inch hose pumping at 250 gallons per minute.
And at the last class the CFA students got some hands on experience with a fire hose. The MFD usually assigns two firefighters per hose, so we were divided into teams of two, decked out in bunkers, boots, helmets and gloves, and given hoses. And the task was simply to spray water onto the cinder block house. It wasn't on fire, so they called it a dry run, but there was nothing dry about it.
I can assure you that it takes two strong men to handle one of those hoses even when it's pumping at less than full strength. And the lesson we all took away that night was that any team requiring two strong men that has me on it will be short by one strong man. My most sincere apologies go to the people who got drenched.
Next class: Fighting a real fire!
(Episode 1 of this series titled Fighting Fires at the Airport was about the Midland Fire Department station at the airport and the equipment available to the firefighters stationed there which was on display and demonstrated for the students attending the Citizens Fire Academy.)
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