Live Training Fires

[Scott2912]

Looking to hear how other departments plan, prep and conduct live training fires in aquired structures.

Does your department have a written SOP for training fires other than NFPA 1403?

How are the buildings prepared for the exercise?

Are you permitted to use furniture for fireload or just Class A material?

Are the students given instruction on interior fire attack prior to the evolution?
Is this left up to a senior crewmember or "qualified" instructor?

Thanks in advance!

Scott

[PTFD21]

Hey Scott -
Our dept. does quite a few live trainng burns. We do have an SOP in place. The buildings are investigated to make sure all utilities have been cut, that written permission as well as acquired structure has a clear title.
The site is inspected and removed any oil tanks, or any other containers of combustible materials. Floor openings, loose railings, missing stair treads are repaired or made inaccessible.Bee hives, and other debris is removed to an inaccessible area. If the building is beyond repair, sufficient to make it safe then no interior operations are performed.
Only Class A materials are used for interior training classes. We have also done arson training fires for a nearby college that does a suspicious fire investigation class. There are other standards in place for arson training fires which are more stringent and done by experienced personnel only.
Things like water supply, sufficient staging and vehicle parking, exposures, spectator safety and other similar issues should be taken into account. All of our live fire trainings shall have a Rapid Intervention Team in place. A safety officer should also be designated.
One person is assigned to control the materials being burned and to ignite the training fires. Of course this person is assigned another F/F to assist.
All personnel shall have on full structural firefighting gear and SCBA.


Hope this helps....



------------------
ED C.
"Doin' it for lives and property !"
http://members.aol.com/PT10FD/info.htm

[eppie]

I will be emailing you a copy of New York States Live Fire Training Policy (Rev. August 1,1995) There is also a checklist that goes with it...

If anyone else would care for a copy, email me, hzmt@borg.com (for now, switching ISP).

Hope this helps

[Dalmation90]

hzmt@borg.com (for now, switching ISP).

There letting you leave the collective?

(Sorry...bad Star Trek joke for those who didn't get it http://www.firehouse.com/interactive/boards/smile.gif)

[eppie]

Yes I've left the collective.

I now have Road Runner (D/L 3.4 Mb file in less than a minute).

Anyway, new email...

sepps1@twcny.rr.com

[KEA]

Contact Deputy Chief James Kron with the Indiana State Instructors Association. Chief Kron has been teaching the Indanapolis annual fire school for 15-20 years. Better known as "Dancing with the Devil"

He also does numerous live fire fire schools in the spring and fall. They have an excellant program. His e-mail is jfkron@aye.net

[Capt. Ed]

Our district utilizes a dedicated training tower with burn rooms. We operate under the NFPA guidlines for live fire scenarios to the letter; this includes every person involved in the operation taking a walkthrough of the structure before hand to gain familiarity. Although these guidlines seem mundane at times, they work for us and we have never had an injury during this live fire training.