Fighting virtual fires prepares métro drivers for real crises
Disaster simulator also used to train about 500 firefighters and police a year
There’s a loud pop, and flames start shooting out of the back of the métro.
The métro operator uses the loudspeaker to tell people to evacuate the train, and a current of air blows in the faces of passengers, to direct smoke away from them.
After the passengers leave, the métro operator grabs a hose that is attached to the wall and sprays it in the direction of the flames.
That’s the drill that has been worked out hundreds of times at the Société de transport de Montréal’s disaster simulator. Known as the Centre de formation souterrain en prévention des incendies (CFSPI), the STM’s fire prevention training centre is in a sealed-off tunnel in an undisclosed location on the northern part of the island. The STM recently allowed the Montreal Gazette to witness a simulation and see how operators and fire personnel learn how to handle emergencies in the underground network.
The flames and smoke are not real, but the simulator uses a real métro train so firefighters and operators can practise dozens of different emergency scenarios.
One thing that stood out in the simulation was the major role an operator plays in managing any emergency. It’s up to operators to report a problem, start the evacuation, and then begin fighting any fire.
“We can think of the métro operator as the captain of the ship, but he doesn’t have many tools to help him out,” explained Guy Parent, a co-ordinator for the STM’s fire department. “We train the operators for the worst-case scenario.”
The city’s transit network has its own fire department, which is independent from the Montreal fire department.
Born of two major fires in trains that killed their operators in 1971 and 1974 (the last two fires in a train where there was a loss of life), the STM’s fire prevention division has its own mission, that has a heavy emphasis on awareness, training and prevention.
The STM trains about 500 firefighters and police officers from Montreal, Longueuil and Laval every year using the simulator, so they can help if the STM’s fire crew calls for backup.
The current simulator was built in 2007 at a cost of $10 million, when the Laval métro extension displaced the old fire prevention school at the Henri-Bourassa station. In the simulation displayed for reporters, operator Billy Yu mans the controls of the train, calls in the emergency, and then makes an announcement on the train’s loudspeakers for people to evacuate.
Markers in the tunnel tell Yu exactly where the train has stopped, and he relays that information by walkie-talkie, along with the nature of the emergency, to the métro control centre.
In seconds, an emergency plan is formulated and ventilators are engaged to direct the smoke away from passengers. There are 2,500 different ventilation scenarios that can be used, depending on the nature of the emergency, the location of the smoke, and the place where the train stopped.
Ventilators are critical to any emergency in the métro. Because the entire network is underground, a fire can blow smoke through all four métro lines, if permitted to spread.
Ventilation chambers throughout the network can either blow air into or dispel air from the tunnels at a wind that reaches a maximum force of 16 kilometres per hour.
“As people leave the train, the wind will be blowing in their faces, so the smoke blows away from them,” Parent explained.
After instructing people to get off the train, Yu grabs a fluorescent orange flashlight and checks inside the train. He places a ladder at one of the doors to help anyone who may have reduced mobility.
Throughout the underground, ladders and working hoses are interspersed on each side of the tunnel. There is one ladder per three métro cars.
“We don’t ask the operator to expose himself to the fire, but to keep a safe distance,” Parent said. “He will at least be able to stop it from spreading.”
Although he’s tasked with an enormous responsibility in the event of an emergency, Yu, a longtime métro operator, said he’s confident in the expertise of firefighters, and in his own skills after the training refresher.
“I feel much more comfortable right now for my own safety and for the safety of my passengers,” Yu said after the drill.
Although the fire division receives 1,000 calls per year, there has not been a major fire within the network since the 1970s. One of the reasons is the emphasis the STM places on prevention. Materials throughout the network are continuously analyzed, to be sure the least flammable products are used.
Over the years, not only have the insides of trains have been rebuilt like planes so they don’t retain flames, but the smallest details have also been reviewed and changed. Even garbage bins in stations have been moved away from platforms to keep any potential flames away from passing trains.
“We look at everything within the whole network; everything, except maybe the products being sold in the kiosks at stations,” Parent said.