June 29, 2002

Fire Training Drill

It was noon, and the victim had been trapped in a small compartment of a railroad car for three hours. The firefighters were getting closer to being able to rescue the victim from within the space filled with a chemical that, if breathed, would turn to acid in the lungs.

Fortunately, the "victim" was a well-used dummy the fire department uses for such exercises. It was the first full-scale training drill of the season, and the firefighters had purposely made it difficult for themselves. Not only did they have to get themselves safely on top of the train car, but they also had to identify the chemical and get the victim out and safely to the ground. This included setting up two separate pulley systems: one to enter and leave the train car, and one to lower the victim to the ground.

If it had been a real emergency, the exercise would have taken minutes, rather than hours, but the purpose of the training drill was to learn what does and does not work. First, the firefighters placed one ladder on either side of the train car and tied them together at the top. That didn't work well, because the ladders were the same size and did not mesh well. So they finally leaned one ladder against the train car and set up a pulley system between the ladder and ropes that were anchored on the ground.

Meanwhile, hazardous materials crew members donned bright yellow suits, neon green boots and oxygen masks. Later, they had to sit in the shade and have their vitals monitored due to the heat. The firefighter who went in the train car told me it was extremely hot in there. But at long last, they lowered the victim to the ground and then decontaminated him and the firefighter by hosing and wiping them off. The funniest part was when they dumped the victim off the gurney into the makeshift pool used to collect the water. The firefighters laughed and made sure I knew that would certainly not happen if the situation had been real.

Go back to the Discovery Event Index