Went to fire fighter training tonight and here is a picture of what it looked like.
That is a 2 story 60 year old, drug house, fully engulfed in flames.
This is my second training class.
I was assigned to assist with getting water with one of the tanker trucks. We had to get water from a fire hydrant a quarter of a mile away and then dump it into a pool where the main fire pumping truck sucked it up using a ventury jet and an 8 inch line. We used a lot of water tonight. We were pumping water from 6:30 until 11:00 PM. I also was on the hose and nozzle on and off once the building had totally collapsed. You could not be anywhere near this fire with out full fire fighting equipment on and all I had was a T shirt and jeans. Just standing next to the pumper truck it was really hot. While the building was still standing, they had to rotate out the firefighters pretty quick after one of the senior fighters overheated and dropped.
It was a great training exercise. It really helped everyone understand just how bad a fire can be and how fast they can spread. From start to collapse was 30 minutes.
Keep in mind the idea of this fire was not only training but also to remove the building.
It was an awesome night. I didn?t get home until almost midnight.
Jim Altmiller