Practice makes perfect in the firefighting world

by JOHN LASKO

News-Times reporter

For two hours on the second, third and fourth Tuesdays of each month, nearly 20 firefighters from the Amherst Fire Department spend the evening in the field honing their skills so they are ready to battle the real thing when they are called.

The owner of the Dovin and Reber-Jones Funeral Home and Cremation Center, who purchased property at 1110 Cooper-Foster Park Road, donated the house there for training purposes.

In the near future, this old house will be demolished so that the existing owners will be able to build a new funeral home on the site.

Last Tuesday's training session focused on the third and fourth firefighters on the hose line from letting the hose get knotted, which Amherst fire chief Wayne Northeim said can greatly diminish the water pressure.

"What happens is they get excited and their adrenaline skyrockets and they all want to go in to the building together. Well you can't do that because you've got to have a nozzle man who is the first guy on the line and then an officer," Northeim said. He has been with the department since 1990.

When firefighters respond to a house or industrial fire, they grab what's called the hose load from the engine and dump it on the ground. They need to know how to properly "flake out" the hose so it is not in one giant ball.

"We wanted to make sure that once that hose is charged that there was a clear flow to the nozzle and that we were able to move in whatever direction we needed to because you don't want to have to run out of water when you have fire flying over your head," he said.

The fire department filled the house with what Northeim calls white practice smoke, the kind you often see at a sporting event, or parties.

It is non-toxic; Northeim said since the house is so small, it held all the thick white smoke indoors. One of his firefighters came up to him and stated it was one of the best charged smoke drills he has ever seen.

"It's good practice to be in your mask with air on at the time because there's times where it used to happen to me, you get a little anxious. I would just have to stop for a minute, take a few breaths and then focus in and then I could go. Some guys it's easy to do and some guys have a couple of issues but nothing to where it is a safety factor," he said.

Northeim added it is a good idea for a firefighter to remain calm; getting excited might cause them to suck their oxygen tank dry in about 10 minutes.

On a scale of 1-10, Northeim ranks last week's training session as an eight. He added all of his men worked hard, and stayed focused.

"It's redundant training and sometimes it's like 'why do we have to do this again' -- well the answer is you just do," he said.

This week's training, which took place yesterday at the same location, was similar to what they did last week when flaking out the hose. But this time, they used a charged hose, meaning they used water to combat a fictitious fire both in the interior and the exterior of the house. Northeim said this drill will be a significant challenge because the house is so small with narrow hallways.

"If there is fire showing by the time you get to the front door, you are not going in with a limp hose, you are going in with charged hose, so that's where you need to flake it out," he said. Last year the department did all their training at a vacant residence on Cooper-Foster Park Road near the new Target store.

However the department's training doesn't stop there. On the first Tuesday of each month they gather for a business social meeting, clean-up and equipment check night. The firefighters are responsible for pulling all the equipment off each engine or ladder truck, cleaning it, starting up each of the trucks in order to check how much gas is in and making sure everything is in proper working order.

Some of the Amherst firefighters will also be participating in training outside the department, such as a vehicle extrication class involving a school bus in the JVS parking lot in Oberlin which will take place at the end of July.

"I sent a guy down to the Ohio Fire Academy (in Columbus) to take a class and there is also a National Fire Academy Ohio weekend which is coming up and I have been there numerous times for such as command, tactical and strategy classes and there is all sorts of training out there that we can do," Northeim said.

All the firefighters employed at the Amherst Fire Department are part-time employees. During the day shift, Northeim usually has anywhere between six and 12 firefighters available during the day compared to anywhere between 15 and 25 firefighters on the night shift. He said he is trying desperately to get the number of firefighters on the day shift close to the number on the night shift. If there is a fire during the day, they will automatically have to call for mutual aid from South Amherst and Elyria Township.

"They work really hard and we train hard and it shows. Departments that don't train aren't as effective because you have to train and it's always been that way here and it shows," Northeim said.