Photo By Brian Lamar | Air Force Reserve firefighters with the 403rd Civil Engineering Squadron, Keesler Air...... read more read more
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KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- More than two dozen reservists with the 403rd Civil Engineering Squadron quickly donned oversized silver fire protection suits and prepared to enter a smoke-filled building to extinguish flames during an annual structural firefighting exercise Dec. 7 at the Gulfport International Airport.
The purpose of this exercise was to send less experienced members of the squadron into a building to work out potential scenarios they could face in the event of a real fire, said Maj. David Stanford, 403rd CES commander.
The fires in the building, which were made out of pallets and hay, burnt at full capacity, and reservists, who were paired in teams of two, waited their turn in line to be the next team to enter through a big iron door with a fire hose to figure out how to accomplish their mission.
"You go in, and as soon as you open the door it just goes black. All you can see is a red glow in the back corner. So, it's really mind racking," said Senior Airman Shelby McGee, 403rd CES firefighter.
The purpose of sending the trainees into the building with no prior knowledge of the scenario is to train the firefighters to make quick decisions and react appropriately.
"Any time you get into a live situation, you have all kinds of variables you have to exist with, and this is just a small portion to become familiar with. The fire, the smoke, the room environment," Stanford said.
During the event, firefighters were tasked to perform a procedure called hydraulic ventilation. The purpose was to show firefighters how spraying water out of a window reduces the smoke in a room by pulling it outside. For McGee, this was an exercise in frustration, but helped her learn more about how to control her own reaction while fighting fire, she said.
"This is the first time I've ever not been able to get a window open, so that was kind of frustrating, and I'm thinking, how am I going to hydraulic ventilate if I can't get the window open," said McGee. "I've honestly never been this shaken. I'm still jittery from doing that. Through this training, I can learn how to calm myself down, assess the situation in order to help someone."
Even though McGee found her scenario frustrating and nerve racking; her commander feels that, that is exactly what is expected.
"These type of training events, help us learn to make better decisions," said Stanford.
"It's a time where you can make mistakes, and you have the inspectors watching," he said. "You have the more experienced firefighters watching, and in this condition, this environment, you want to see where your errors are so you can go back and correct them."
Their training continues. The 403rd CES firefighters plan to have a major exercise in March with multiple scenarios running at the same time in the fuselage of an aircraft and the multiple story building.
| Date Taken: | 12.12.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 01.07.2017 16:31 |
| Story ID: | 219510 |
| Location: | KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, MS, US |
| Web Views: | 21 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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