Mangum Fire Department hosts Regional Fire Training
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
If you drove by Mangum Junior High, the fire station or around Mangum this weekend you saw a lot of different fire department vehicles from around the state. Mangum was home to Firefighter Training, Regional Fire School. Twelve fire departments, including Mangum, and from as far away as Pryor were here for training. I had the pleasure to interview Paddy Metcalf (from Pawhuska) who is a full time Fire Fighter Coordinator with OSU Fire Service Training.
Metcalf explained the state of Oklahoma is divided into quadrants. Each quadrant has training specialists that set up training and teach. This is the third Regional Fire School this year for our quadrant; the other two sessions were in Purcell. The training is sponsored by OSU Fire Service Training Department. This is an outreach and an extension of OSU and is funded by OSU and the Oklahoma State Legislature ($800,000) each year for training. There are full time instructors and 200 part time instructors that range from trainees to employees of local fire departments with up to 30 years of firefighting experience. The training sessions include:
- Wild Land Firefighting Fundamentals
- Exterior Offensive Fire Attack
- Mayday (teaches Firefighters the parameters of and when to call for help)
- Advanced Fire Behavior Training (Fire Simulator)
- Haz Mat Awareness
Metcalf said there were 60 firefighter students, a full time staff of 6 and 10 instructors, who were full time or volunteer firefighters themselves, here this weekend. The firefighters each took 8 or 16 hour classes and their only expenses were related to travel, gas, food and a hotel if needed. Firefighter Training is provided by OSU at no expense to the trainee or fire departments.
Metcalf has been in the firefighting business since 1977. Being a firefighter was very low on his career goal, having been suggested by a friend and he stated it soon got in his blood. His goal is to share his knowledge with others and give them every skill and advantage needed to fight a fire whenever or wherever needed. The end goal: coming home to family and friends safely.
Next, I got to witness Advanced Fire Behavior Training sessions with the flash over simulator. Pulled by a semi, the black box has 2 side doors with detachable walking grates, a fire box in the back and an air vent on the top. After putting on their PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and being checked for complete skin coverage, six firefighter students and 2 instructors enter the simulator.
I interviewed local Firefighter Ron Sperry about his experience in the simulator. “It was great!” he said. Each firefighter is monitored for temperature changes and each has a PASS (Personal Alert Safety System) device. After the fire is lit, firefighter students observe smoke patterns which are called reading smoke according to Sperry. The fire is watched for 4-5 min then the oxygen is shut off by closing the vent and then the fire almost goes out. Sperry says you watch the flames including the ghost flames as well as the flames that lick the ceiling and walls. Metcalf said the temperature variance can be 100 degrees per foot from floor to ceiling (cooler at the floor, hotter at the ceiling). When you see the flash over (the near-simultaneous ignition of most of the directly exposed combustible material in an enclosed area) the firefighter students start to fight the fire. Sperry said each of the 6 take turns using a 1 ½ “ redline hose and give 3 squirts of water in a fog pattern, then adjust the nozzle to a pencil stream and give 3 more bursts of water. This backs the fire off so that the heat is dispersed. After each has received their turn, they exit the box with hands up, are checked by the staff and then cleared to remove their PPE. The fire is then extinguished by the instructor staff. I want to thank Metcalf and Sperry for their interviews and all the firefighters for their dedication and service to keeping us safe and protected. Please visit www.osufst.org for more information about OSU Fire Service Training.