Powell River firefighters had the opportunity to train on a real building through a donation from a local contractor.
Deputy chief Rocky Swanson said firefighter crew members had the chance to run simulations in a building belonging to Al Austin that will be torn down for construction of the new Joyce Commons commercial-residential complex on Joyce Avenue, near Alberni Street.
Swanson said fire crews, when they have the opportunity, go to different structures around the city and pull up the truck outside of a venue as if there was a fire call.
“First of all, I want to say thank you to Al Austin and his company, and other organizations in town that are willing to allow us to use structures before they tear them down,” said Swanson. “The kind of training we are able to do inside of structures that are coming down includes things like cutting holes. We can throw smoke generating machines inside and watch the flow pattern of smoke in certain structures, or we can flow water.”
Swanson said younger firefighters who are not as familiar with building construction can tear apart walls and see what is inside, or go up through a ceiling and see how difficult it is during an actual fire to penetrate.
“That means you have to punch a hole in the ceiling but you also have to go all the way through the roof,” he added. “It’s quite the job, especially during an actual fire.”
Getting these structures to train on is highly valuable because firefighters cannot otherwise simulate those situations.
“You need a real structure that you can cause damage to,” said Swanson. “This is an actual tactical training event where we put guys inside of structures and look at building construction intimately. It’s absolutely invaluable.”
Swanson said the fire department has the option of sending firefighters out of town to use live fire training facilities but sometimes, it is nowhere near as realistic as using an existing structure.
“Loaning us a structure like that puts us forward by years in understanding how things actually work; it gives us an edge, a real leg up in our training and operational capabilities,” he added. “Without the help from the public, we could never possibly afford it because we can’t build a house and burn it down.”
Swanson said the fire department is training in very small groups right now because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said firefighter crews live together, have to be on the trucks together and are exposed to each other constantly, out of necessity. However, they try to keep exposure at close distances to a minimum so everyone stays healthy, he added.
