Where there's smoke, there's training

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Ken Sloat
  • 506th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  Being caught in a burning building would be terrifying.

It’s not an experience most people would welcome. And yet for some, it is.

For two brave souls with the 506th Expeditionary Medical Services Squadron, the opportunity to don a full protective suit and go into the smoke simulation burn trainer here takes them closer to knowing how it feels to be a first responder.

The chamber, which is operated by the firefighters of the 506th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron here, is fashioned from three shipping containers. The longest -- about 40 feet in length -- is fastened side by side to another one which is about half as long. At the base of the shorter one, another short container is mounted perpendicular to form an “L.”

Inside the 10-foot high containers are wooded walls, closets and even stairs leading to a second story. The height the chamber is just 4 or 5 feet so the only way to move around is to crawl.

A fire burns in the container that forms the bottom of the “L,” fed by diesel fuel and scrap wood. It will soon burn large enough to peek through the opening between the two containers. While the flames just barely reach through the opening, the smoke pours into the chamber. Once the doors to the chamber are closed there will be very little light to navigate around the wooden maze.

“It’s scary as heck,” said Capt. Cindy Lang, a critical care nurse with the 506th EMEDS, deployed from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

“You can’t see anything,” she said. “And, it’s dark and smoky.”

For the captain, the opportunity to personally experience what firefighters go through was sufficient justification to push her fears aside and enter the chamber.

During this first hand look at what fire rescue feels like, Captain Lang wore the full protective suit -- more than 55 pounds of clothes and equipment -- to survive the furnace-like heat of the smoke-filled chamber.

What the medics experience is very much like the continual training that firefighters do to keep up their skills, said Senior Master Sgt. Gary Johnson, the 506th ECES fire chief.

The medics will have to crawl on the floor the entire time they are in the chamber to avoid the super-heated air clinging to the ceiling, said Sergeant Johnson who is deployed from the 130th Airlift Wing at Charleston Air Force Base, W. Va.

“Near the ceiling it’s probably more like 1,200 degrees,” said Master Sgt. Mark White, the 506th CES deputy fire chief. He is deployed from the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacher Air National Guard Base, Ohio.

According to Sergeant White, the temperatures within the chamber start at about 400 degrees at knee-level and climb from there.

“If you stand up in a fully heated chamber it can melt your visor,” he said, referring to the heat-resistant sun visor on the front of the firefighter’s helmet.

Crawling along the floor, the medics have to locate the source of the fire at the opposite end and use the large fire hose they have been dragging with them to extinguish it.

When they shoot the fire with a blast of water from their hoses it creates a curtain of super-heated steam that will pour in to the chamber, said Tech. Sgt. Charles Brown, 506th ECES, a battalion fire chief with the 506th ECES fire department.

This steam is both friend and foe to the firefighter, he said.

While hot enough to burn and injure them, it is also moisture that can help extinguish the fire, Sergeant Brown said.

The medics enter the chamber in a group of four: two of them sandwiched between two experienced firefighters. The two at their side are only two of a safety net of more experts, Sergeant Johnson said.

Immediately outside the door, two firefighters fully dressed in protective gear are standing by with a backup hose charged with water and ready to go in if necessary.

Every training exercise such as this will have a safety officer overseeing it. The safety officer will inspect the equipment to be sure it is serviceable and monitor the donning process to be sure the suit is worn correctly, Sergeant Johnson said.

The safety officer, normally mobile at the training site, went into the smoke chamber for this exercise.

“If they had been firefighters he would have stayed at the door,” Sergeant Johnson said. “But, he felt he wanted to be extra careful.”

The safety officer wanted to know instantly if the temperature inside the chamber rose to an unsafe level, Sergeant Johnson said. But, even alone, they were still heavily protected.

The jacket and pants combination they wore is triple-lined, each layer designed for a different type of protection, Sergeant Johnson said.

The outer layer is a specially designed heat resistant material. The jacket and pants are layered on the inside with a thermal layer designed to keep the heat at bay. The moisture barrier in between them keeps the super-heated steam from penetrating the other layers to cause injury to a firefighter.

For Maj. (Dr.) John Harrah, the director of emergency services for the 506th EMEDS, being able to crawl around in a smoke-filled chamber is part of understanding what some career fields in the Air Force go through. From an occupational medical standpoint, it’s nearly invaluable experience.

“It’s a huge benefit to see what happens out there,” he said.