Firefighting training without the flames
Regional district uses building on Monterey’s Garden Road and a smoke machine for training firefighters.
Glass from windows shattered and chainsaws fired up on Garden Road Monday as firefighters with the Monterey County Regional Fire District received a chance to conduct hands-on training at a four-building commercial office complex.
In addition to skills stations, crews worked on different firefighting scenarios during the training.
“The scenario we just had involved a rescue,” said Monterey County Regional Fire District Division Chief Eric Ulwelling. “Basically, they solve whatever problem they’re presented with.”
Ulwelling credited Training Chief Miles Schuler and Prevention Chief Kevin Kamnikar for helping set up the training event.
“They were able to acquire a campus, there are four large buildings on this campus that is going to be demolished,” he said. “It was very gracious of the property owner to allow us to do this kind of training. It’s very difficult to find structures like this to do training and it’s really invaluable.”
The one- and two-story buildings range from 4,000 to 10,000 square feet. According to previous reporting from The Herald, developer Brad Slama plans on building housing at the site after the office buildings are demolished at 2600 Garden Road.
Ulwelling said while a majority of responses for the Monterey County Regional Fire District are providing emergency medical services, training is important to be prepared for lowfrequency, high-risk events like structure fires. The fire district assisted with the response to a large structure fire Sunday in Hollister.
“We have to maintain proficiency even though it’s not a type of call which occurs on a regular basis,” he said. “So those low-frequency, high-risk events require just as much training as anything else that we do, so we take that very seriously.”
The training activities started last week and will continue through this week. The training exercises involve firefighting tools and smoke machines create zero visibility conditions similar to a real fire, but no actual fire is being used at the site.
The skills stations were forcible entries, vertical ventilation and rescues. Firefighters used axes and other tools to break open doors during the forcible entry training. Doors with metal frames took a bit more work for the crews, while they went through wood with ease. During the vertical ventilation training, firefighters checked the stability of the roof before cutting through it with a chainsaw to practice the technique of allowing hot air, smoke, gas and pressure to release through the hole and allow for safer conditions inside the structure. During the rescue training, firefighters climbed a ladder, broke through a window and one person went inside to look for a victim while the other watched with a thermal imaging camera.
The COVID-19 pandemic brings an added challenge to firefighters trying to conduct training. The crews practiced social distancing protocols and cohorts of firefighters who normally work together at their respective fire stations were assigned separate activities in the morning and afternoon schedules in keeping with fire district procedures established during the pandemic.
“In addition to our rehabilitation station where we have some food and water and supplies, we also have a COVID station set up where we have wipes, we have antiseptic spray, we have masks,” Ulwelling said. “So while the crews aren’t actively working, they can come back to the COVID station and clean up. … Everything we’re doing is cognitive of keeping our crews safe and maintaining the work practices for COVID.”
Other agencies including the fire departments of Monterey and Seaside as well as the Monterey Police Department will be conducting their own training activities on other days.