In a training exercise earlier this week, four Fulton firefighters fought their way into a smoke-filled house and crawled on the floor, searching for a fellow firefighter who simulated he had fallen in the line of duty. A hose line guided their way to safety in the "firefighter mayday" situation.
The rescuing firefighters - or, the rapid intervention team (RIT) - wrapped a highlighter yellow strap around Fulton firefighter James Noah, who was acting as the victim, to pull him from a room in the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house. Together, the on-duty firefighters lifted his body - which is 70 pounds heavier due to gear, a thermal imaging camera, two and a half gallon water canon and an ax - to safety in the simulation.
A-shift firefighters practiced a total of four drills on Tuesday inside the house on St. Francis Street, near Bartley Elementary School, and extricated each other from rooms and broken-out windows. The opportunity to work on a house was unique for the department, which had all shifts take part in room extricating and roof ventilation training as well as other life-saving techniques throughout the week.
"With those instances (like firefighter mayday), if nothing else, it would have been good training situation for a real-life scenario," Noah said. "With that real-life situation, it allows us to utilize something that's kind of unique in our field and hopefully we never experience. But, we definitely want to be knowledgeable and brushed up on our skills for that, learning lot of new techniques throughout it. The fire service is a changing beast, every day there's something changing about it."
Firefighting Statistics
[]Fulton Public Schools donated the house to the fire department for training purposes prior to demolition. The district approved the contract last May and closed it in December, purchasing the house for $66,000, according to Superintendent Jacque Cowherd. As to why the district bought the house, Cowherd said Bartley is landlocked, which can cause issues.
Utilizing the house allowed the department to take what they've learned through regular training, firefighting videos and round table discussions and put it into action, bringing them closer to the reality of a potentially dangerous situation. Liability issues and rules from the National Fire Protection Association prevented the Fulton Fire Department from live burning the house, but they flipped on a smoke machine to limit their visibility.
Noah said firefighters were given "free reign" to make decisions in their training and eliminate issues that could arise when trying to save a fellow firefighter or civilians.
Firefighter Scott Peterson called using the house as a training tool a "bonus" for the department that responded to 197 structure fire calls between 2010-Thursday, May 7. The department recorded one injury from those calls that occurred in 2012 at a residential fire.
"You've got to be prepared for anything," Peterson said Tuesday after training. "I feel that the RIT team is the most important because that could be one of our brothers or sisters in there and with that you have to take it as serious as possible, because God forbid if that ever happened. It's a pretty important step in the fire service."
In Missouri, nine firefighters died on scene at a fire between February 2004-December 2013, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. Within that same time period, four died because they were caught or trapped inside a structure, five died from trauma, two died from asphyxiation and two died from burns.
Nationally, there were 1,047 on-duty fatalities reported between January 2004-December 2013. Of those, 323 were on-scene fire fatalities of firefighters and 306 were at a structure fire. The number of firefighter deaths caused by being caught or trapped was 103, falling was 43, asphyxiation was 78, burns was 58 and heat exhaustion was five.
The Fulton Fire Department has suffered the loss of its own on-duty firefighters. Capt. Alan Leake died on April 30, 2006 after going into cardiac arrest at the scene of a motor vehicle accident. Many years ago, a Fulton fire chief died while working a fire at a fraternity house.
Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Coffelt said Fulton firefighters trained in self extrication this week - tearing down walls to escape a room and eventually the house in order to save themselves.
"It gives us an opportunity to work with real houses, not made up props," Coffelt said. "This is the real deal. It's real life for us."
After their firefighter mayday situation Tuesday, the six-man team briefed. They discussed what went right, ways to make improvements and compared the training to past experiences. Randy Bell, a Fulton firefighter, said that instantaneous talk was essential in the learning process.
The house training, he said, also reinforced the firefighters' camaraderie, often referred to as a brotherhood.
"We always work together as a team, but this helps to bolster the team effort," Bell said. "And also, it gets us to understand what every one's strengths and weaknesses are and shows us in a real situation, where to put your people that will work best (in particular roles)."
Coffelt said anyone interested in donating a home before demolition or renovation is welcome to call the Fulton Fire Department. The phone number for the Westminster Fire Station is (573) 592-3153 and the number for the Tennyson Fire Station is (573) 592-3154.