By Rebecca Palmer
Deseret News
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — The men and women dropped to their knees and crawled into a smoking metal structure carrying 50 pounds of claustrophobia-inducing gear. Dragging engorged fire hoses and depending only on one another for guidance, they stumbled through one tight space after another until their leader attacked flames in a far corner.
The group was participating in the West Valley City Fire Department’s spring operations training. The small crowd included local heavyweights such as Jazz basketball President Randy Rigby and first-year City Councilmen Dave Buhler and Don Christensen.
The “zero-visibility” exercise was one of several opportunities the public had Saturday morning to learn what firefighters get paid for. Participants wore full fire suits and gear and quieted stunt flames on their own. Inside the metal building near 2700 West and 2800 South, white smoke seemed to suck up the light, leaving only blackness and obstacles behind.
“It’s hard to crawl around in the dark,” Buhler said after emerging. “It was physically very difficult.” Later, after his team doused flames and stumbled over one another on the way out, Christensen agreed. “I’m just amazed that these guys do this every day of their lives,” he said.
On Christensen’s second round inside the building, one member of his team carried a $7,000 thermal-imaging camera. In black and white relief, the screen of the handheld machine showed a twin mattress, partial walls and even a warm handprint left behind by a firefighter.
“You really have to keep your wits about you and not get flustered or excited, because you have to get back out of there,” said West Valley Fire Battalion Chief Jeff Fox. “Plus, you can be caught or hooked on wires and stuff. People don’t know what our job includes. It’s completely different from movies.” Fox added that although firefighters spend some of their paid time waiting for a disaster, “when we go to work, we really work.”
Participant Kirsten Wright had her eyes opened Saturday to the hard work of the department, she said. “Even with training, I imagine you have to fight down a little bit of panic,” she said. “You see how dangerous it is.” Nearby, a team of participants used massive hydraulic pliers to destroy an old Cadillac, ripping doors off the hinges and twisting metal from the frame.
Within a stone’s throw, an overturned vehicle and bloodied dummies showed a paramedic’s view of first response. On the other end of the fire department’s No. 73 complex, participants were outfitted with bright-yellow bubble suits intended for situations where any contact with vapor or liquid would be risky.
On display were search cameras and microphones, heavy ropes, and technical rescue equipment, the kind needed in case of a cave rescue or an earthquake. “I was certainly given a new perspective,” said Buhler. “Fire and police are the main reason we have an organized government anyway.”
Copyright 2010 The Deseret News Publishing Co.