On a cool Tuesday evening on West Castor Street, the Dexter Fire Department stood in full gear. Heavy smoke poured from the house with flames visible through the window. The firefighters, with no hesitation or fear, entered the house, where temperatures soared to more than 200 degrees, to battle the flames.Although this fire was very real, this was not an emergency call. This was part of a series of training sessions the department conducts twice a month. Dexter Fire Chief Don Seymore said each session has different goals in mind.
"Tuesday night it was an interior attack," said Seymore. "Our goals were to be able to go into the house and go to the room contents fire."
A contents fire means the contents of the room are on fire, not the structure. The fire department placed items in the room, such as wood pallets, to create the scene for this training session."Our goals are to be able to go in the structure and go in the room and extinguish it without doing further damage to the house," stated Seymore. "So, the proper way of entering and the proper way of blowing the smoke out to prevent further damage to the unburned part of the house."
The West Castor Street house was donated to the Dexter Fire Department by the First Baptist Church of Dexter. When a house becomes available to the fire department, some guidelines have to be met to prepare the structure for a controlled burn. These guidelines are set by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and their purpose is to decrease pollutants released into the air during the burn. Before the structure can be burned, all roofing, carpet and vinyl flooring must be removed.
An asbestos check must be done and any asbestos found must be removed. As Seymore explained, "We have to hire a company to come in and do an asbestos study of the house, and if there is any asbestos in it, it has to be mitigated and moved before we can do any training in it."
When the fire department arrives on the scene, they start a big fan to build what they call positive pressure. This fan blows about 22,000 cubic feet per minute. The windows can then be broken in the room containing the fire causing negative pressure, and this will suck the smoke outside, making visibility in the house better for the firefighters.
This also gets smoke off the floor quicker, and in the event someone is trapped in the house, it can increase the chance of a rescue and save lives. Seymore explained that if firefighters were to break out windows without the positive pressure and spray through the window, they would actually drive the heat back further into the house and cause the fire to spread.
All of this is done to maintain the thermal balance in the house.
"When you go in a house, you don't want to open the nozzle right away and put a mist of water in there," said Seymore. "You will mess up the thermal balance, which converts to steam and makes the heat drop to the floor, and then it is impossible to make entry."
Chief Seymore also stated the house will be used for other training exercises such as search and rescue. To simulate this scenario, another room in the house will be ignited and a "victim" in the form of a dummy will be placed in the house. The firefighters will enter the house with the objective of locating and rescuing the "victim." Eventually, the group will perform a total structure burn.
Seymore explained that with the positive pressure at the right time and the firefighters crawling toward the fire at the right time, they will be crawling at about the same speed as the pressure coming with them, and it will be clearing out as they go, removing a lot of heat off of them.
Perhaps the most import equipment for the firefighters is 80 pounds of gear they don upon arriving on scene. The fire retardant gear is worn with a Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) that hangs on the back.
"It (SCBA) is one of the main life safety tools we use in fire fighting," said Seymore.
The bottle does not contain oxygen due to its flammable nature. The tank contains outside air compressed into the bottle to 4,500 pounds. The air is clean and filtered with no pollutants.
"We have a compressor system here in the fire house that has multiple filters that takes all the pollutants out, all the hazardous carbon dioxide out," Seymore said. "When air goes in there, it is pure."
The air in the bottle will allow firefighters to stay in a structure about 20 minutes. The SCBA has a built-in alarm system called a Personal Alert Safety System (PASS) device. An alarm will alert the firefighter when the air supply is reduced to 32 percent. At this point, they must exit the structure. The department has a breathing apparatus for every man on the department, and 40 extra bottles of air that can be quickly switched on scene.
This device also detects the movement of the firefighter. If a firefighter is knocked down or is incapacitated, it detects that movement has stopped, and a loud alarm will sound. Lights on the breathing apparatus and control unit that hangs on the front of the gear will change from green to red. This will assist rescuers in locating the downed firefighter. The alarm is on the bottom of the tank worn on the back, so even if the firefighter is laying on it, the alarm, will still be heard.
Fire Chief Seymore also stated they have three Rapid Intervention Paks (RIT Pak), which are self contained breathing apparatuses with no mask or PASS alarm. It can be plugged directly into the apparatus the downed firefighter is wearing to provide more air during the rescue.
"Everything is designed for the safety of the firefighter," Seymore stated.
The gear is also washed after every fire to remove contaminants. Each member of the department has two sets of fire retardant gear, so if one is going through the cleaning process they still have a set available if needed. An Extractor Machine at the fire house is used for this. Studies have shown these left over contaminants could pose health risks to the firefighters, so they are thoroughly cleaned. Each set of gear takes 35 minutes to go through the cleaning process.
For the Dexter Fire Department, it is about training and safety. They take both very seriously to be at their best when called upon.