Crawl Low Under Smoke - Education, the Smoke Trailer and Claustrophobia

I now understood that I was made for the Fire Service. I was going to be a firefighter because I chose to do so and I had the support of my family and friends. I was also beginning to see what the brotherhood was all about.

After my latest failure during PPE/SCBA drill I had decided I would practice on my own. However, it was good to know that I didn't need to practice alone. My brothers in Rescue 1 had offered to help me out during their Sunday meetings. I was also working with the Ladder 11 company. I had truly begun to understand the brotherhood.

When things get tough and someone needs help you come through for each other. I began to set my own sense of selfish pride and competition aside in order to help others and in turn I learned from them.

Education

Education is a major part of the Fire Service mission. In order to protect life and preserve property we are given the opportunity to serve the community through education. These educational opportunities may be station tours, school presentations, or doing private home surveys.

In any of these situations firefighters must be prepared to utilize their public speaking skills and vast knowledge to inform the public of ways they can avoid hazardous situations.

Everyone remembers, "Stop, Drop, and Roll." However, we learned in Fire Academy that the information you present must be tailored to the audience. High Schoolers don't care about this goofy information. Adults are worried about how to prepare their families or how their aging parents can help themselves in emergency situations.

I mentioned in a previous post that a local program called Safety Town was also one of my inspirations for becoming a firefighter. The education and information my children received was so well presented and gave me a first hand look at this amazing opportunity firefighters have to serve their community.

© Holly McQueen - The Des Moines Register

From a story by the Des Moines Register: "West Des Moines Fire Department driver/operator Paul O'Connell shows children a ladder truck and tools firefighters use for their job on a field trip to the West Des Moines Fire Station 17 during Safety Town West Des Moines June 21. West Des Moines Fire Department ladder 215's crew gave a tour of Fire Station 17. The educational program, offered by West Des Moines Community Education, meets at Phenix Elementary Early Childhood Center and covers a variety of situations and teaches skills for children entering kindergarten this fall. Topics covered at Safety Town are safety awareness around strangers, water, traffic, fire, buses and poison. Children had the opportunity to learn through experiences in the Safety Town village, a field trip to the West Des Moines Fire Station and West Des Moines Police Department and classroom activities."

One fascinating fact I learned is that Kindergartners were once taught to, "Crawl Low in Smoke!" However this isn't true. You must, "Crawl Low Under Smoke!" If there is a fire and smoke begins to fill the room you must get as low as possible so that you do not breathe any smoke. The smoke will most likely kill you before the fire does.


We were about to learn this first hand in the Smoke Trailer.

Claustrophobia

Our Fire Academy had a guest crew from the State Board of Training bring a Smoke Trailer. This trailer had a moveable maze designed for confined space search and rescue. This maze was filled with smoke to simulate a live fire situation.

© Johan Hammerby | Photojournalism BLOG

Each company entered the structure to search for a victim.

Engine 12 geared up in full PPE/SCBA and entered the trailer, crawling low into the dark tunnel. The "Wash-Out" was leading the way with "Buffalo" behind him. I was crawling in third with our Officer, "Double-D," behind me. We each crawled holding onto the pant leg of the firefighter ahead of us.

We made our way down a small corridor, not much wider than 3 feet by 3 feet, as I heard Wash-Out shout, "Stairs!" We came to a small set of stairs. These 5 stairs led up to a small opening in the ceiling above us. "Hole in the ceiling!" shouted Buffalo. We each crawled up through this hole.

As I squeezed my way up into the hole in the ceiling, sweat dripping from every pore as my body heat remained trapped within my PPE, I banged my helmet against the small opening. As I squeezed through I could feel my heart pounding in my ears as the dark smoke and the walls began to close in around my body and my mind.

I swallowed my fear and continued to crawl forward down a short hallway as the adrenaline began to kick in. I heard the shouts from Wash-Out and Buffalo ahead, "Left Turn!" As I rounded the corner I looked at the Heads Up Display within my facepiece. The two green lights that signaled my SCBA's full air pressure had now turned to a single green light, meaning I was quickly pulling air from my tank. I needed to slow my breathing and concentrate on the task. I shouted the directions to Double-D as we continued to quickly crawl.

"Low Tunnel!" screamed Buffalo as we scrambled down a small angled corridor. I felt him stop and turn over onto his back. I remembered the small tunnel I had to crawl through to pass the CPAT and thought this would be a simple dip in the ceiling. I reached into the dark with my hand to feel the low tunnel. As my gloves passed over the wall in front of me I realized this low tunnel was nothing more than a 1 foot tall by 3 foot wide gap in the wall!

I began to panic as I turned over on my back, my SCBA clanging on the floor as I reached my arms straight out. I reached through the gap as I laid my head on the floor, hoping to make myself as flat as possible to pull myself through. As I pulled myself forward, I looked up through the smoke to see the dim flashing lights from Buffalo's SCBA.

I pulled my own body weight along with the 70 pounds of gear under the small opening. My shoulder crashed into the opening as I realized that I couldn't fit through the opening. I gasped and fear began to set in. I thought to myself, "How am I going to get through this? How am I going to survive? Will I have to return through this way?" I remembered what my wife had told me just two nights before, "Think about those victims as if there were your children."

I thought about my kids being trapped, desperately hoping for rescue. I took a deep breath and yelled to Buffalo, "I'm taking my pack off, I can't fit through here!" I pushed myself back to begin turning over when Buffalo grabbed my hand and screamed, "Do NOT take off your pack! Pull yourself through one arm at a time!"

I threw one arm over head and left the other at my side. This made my shoulders just slim enough to slide through the gap. A feeling of exhilaration and pride washed over my worried mind as I peered up at the green glow from behind Buffalo's facepiece. I rolled back over and got on my hands and knees, yelling under the gap for Double-D to do the same as I had.

Once we were all through the gap we proceeded into the dark. The smoke whisping past my facepiece as the HUD changed to yellow, signifying that my air was at about 2200psi or half empty. Trust me, this was not a half-full moment for me. I knew any moment that my low-air alarm would begin. I was sucking too much air and we couldn't turn back.

Just as I finished that thought the alarm went off. In addition to the alarm a warning light on the SCBA began to flash and the HUD began to vibrate on my face. My mind was screaming to stand up and run but I knew I had a job to do and I was part of a team. "No one gets left behind and everyone goes home."

We crawled right, left, around a corner and I heard Wash-Out yell, "I've got a victim!"

"Pass the victim!" shouted Buffalo. He turned and passed me the "victim." It was an infant sized doll, heavier than I thought it would be and very awkward.

The group turned and I tucked the "victim" under my left arm. Double-D screamed, "Let's GO!" as he scrambled to lead us back the way we came.

I frantically passed him the doll under the wall. With each pass of my hand and feet across the floor I hoped that I had enough air to get out. I tried to focus on my breathing and slow down each exhale. Finally I heard Double-D exclaim, "Here's the hole in the floor! Go down feet first!" This meant we were near the exit. I excitedly dropped down the stairs and continue to rush toward the light at the end of that cramped, dark, smokey tunnel.

As I jumped out of the door the reality of what I had just done slammed into me like a freight train. It was almost unbelievable and I was almost overcome with the fear I had denied the entire time. My only defense was to erupt in a guttural exclamation, "Yeeeaaah!"

We all turned to make sure everyone had made it out and congratulated each other on our rescue.

This would not be the last time I had to face fear.


Check out this informative and funny video of what it is like to crawl through a smoke trailer.

In similar fashion to the video, I later heard that "Cap'n Brown" had not conquered his fear of confined spaces. It overwhelmed him so much that he stood up and jumped out of the trailer, crawling, climbing and running over his company and leaving them behind in the trailer.

I'm trying hard not to make fun of his struggle, but it is hilarious to hear Rescue 1 recount the story as they saw him bolt out of the trailer. Ha!
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What memories do you have of fire education? What things do you want to know about fire safety? Have you had to face danger and fear and still get the job done?

Join me for the next blog post about high angle rescue!