By RICHARD DYMOND
Bradenton Herald (Florida)
Seeing nothing but black before her, firefighter Lt. Noreen Hollman fell to all fours, extended her gloved hands and yelled into her portable radio, “Danny, I feel tile. This must be the kitchen.”
Her East Manatee Fire Rescue partner, Danny Chappell, also on his hands and knees, was a few steps in front of her and also couldn’t see anything.
“This door swings out,” Chappell said. “So it must be a closet.”
Hollman and Chappell weren’t really in a smoke-filled, burning house Thursday, but were learning how to survive if they ever got lost in one.
The drills, conducted by East Manatee Fire Rescue, started Thursday in a little, pink, empty house slated for demolition on Morgan Johnson Road, just south of State Road 64.
The training is focused on saving firefighters and will continue throughout February, said East Manatee Fire Rescue Chief Tim Hyden, the department’s training officer.
“Firefighters are taught from day one to save civilians, but we are not taught how to save ourselves,” Hyden said.
Hollman and Chappell, who were required to wear shields over their eyes and breathe from their air tanks to simulate a smoke-filled building, were taught by Lt. Brian Kalmbach how to feel along the floor to see if it is carpet or tile.
“If it’s tile, it’s usually a kitchen area,” said Kalmbach, the lead instructor for the drills.
Firefighters historically have rushed into burning, smoky houses, grabbing a wall and following it around to look for civilians, not really trying to remember where they are, Kalmbach said.
“Once inside, we will shove things in our way toward the center of the room,” Kalmbach said.
But, in his “room orientation” drill, Kalmbach taught the firefighters that to toss a table means losing a point of reference that might be needed later.
“You can find your way back out if you have landmarks,” Kalmbach said. “These are things we know, but need to be re-taught.”
When her portion of the drill was over, Hollman, who has almost 19 years of service with East Manatee Fire Rescue, praised the new drills.
“It makes you think differently,” Hollman said.
Kalmbach will be teaching the 48 firefighters of the department about a half-dozen new strategies.
Besides taking the time to learn room orientation in the dark and how to find a way back out, the firefighters will learn how to get out of a window quickly with just a rope and how to do a head-first ladder slide.
They will learn how to follow fire hoses to get out of danger.
Perhaps most importantly, they will also learn how to pack and move a downed fellow firefighter, Kalmbach said.
“Even though the number of structure fires in the United States has gone down over the last few years, the number of firefighter deaths has increased,” Kalmbach said.
Although she is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds, Hollman can move a much-heavier downed fellow firefighter using some of the strategies for survival Kalmbach teaches.
“We carry more tools than we ever did,” Hollman said. “I have carabiner clips and there are gaps in my air tank frame where I can hook straps to haul someone out.”
Four-year firefighter Luke Fay of East Manatee Fire Rescue said firefighters wouldn’t be firefighters if they didn’t enjoy what they do.
“A firehouse is a collection of Type-A personalities,” Fay said. “If we were scared, we wouldn’t be in this occupation. We are hard-charging and hard-working. But we have to train ourselves to think smart and that’s what these drills are doing.”