Deep inside the quiet Fontana, Va. community, large gray smoke clouds could be seen rising from a series of buildings being consumed by flames. The culprits were surprisingly not pyromaniac teenage boys -- but rather the Charlottesville Fire Department.
This past weekend over 100 firefighters from throughout Albemarle County, including the stations of Crozet, Albemarle County Fire-Rescue and Seminole Trail, took part in firefighter training at the former Garnett Center on Route 20 North.
The presence of so many different stations' firemen provided an added benefit to the training because it allowed representatives from different stations to work together. This cooperation was relevant because some recent incidents have called for quick, coordinated action between multiple stations in order to respond to an emergency.
At Friday's event, three barns were burned as part of a demonstration with about 30 firemen present. Greater numbers of firemen turned out for the final two days with 80 participating on Saturday and 50 on Sunday. The firefighters in attendance included some full-time employees and some volunteers.
The buildings burned over the weekend were donated to the firefighter training in order to save money on demolishing them for a new living complex. Dennis Hahn, a firefighting veteran for 23 years and assistant chief of the Seminole Trail branch, said donating buildings of any value to the Fire Squad is cheaper than razing them down and provides critical training to firemen, but opportunities like these come along infrequently.
The Fire Squad hosts a Fire Academy twice a year with a live burning as the final test. However, because donations are so unpredictable, it can be hard to have the end of a Fire Academy term coincide with an actual opportunity to test firefighting skills in a controlled environment. Yet since the size of the land and the number of buildings in this donation was so large, firefighters made an extra effort to maximize the opportunity by practicing a number of different training techniques as well as starting from 20 to 25 fires per building.
According to County Training Chief Scott Lambert, firefighters learned to ventilate roofs, to knock down walls in case they're trapped with no other course of action available and, of course, to stop fires. The fledgling firefighters also learned to use a new foam for extinguishing fires. Not only is it more effective than water, it is also much lighter for firefighters to carry.
Despite the relatively low mortality rate (less than 1 percent), the firefighting profession has a higher mortality rate than many other jobs or hobbies. According to the U.S. Fire Administration, on-job firefighter deaths increased in 2003 as compared to those in 2002, despite technological and communication advances.
Training also is not necessarily an extremely safe activity. A fire in a building can reach temperatures of 600 to 800 degrees, but more than that, smoke can confuse and disorient even the best firefighters. Of the 110 on-the-job firefighter deaths in 2003, 11 occurred during training. Luckily last weekend's training went smoothly.
Despite the obvious dangers inherent even in controlled fires, the Fire and Rescue Squad has training safety down to a science. Firefighters are organized into groups of about five, comprised of novice and experienced firefighters. One group of firemen is designated as fire starters, who also watch over the exercises to extinguish the fires in case they start to get out of hand. Many of the senior firefighters calmly monitored the training from inside and outside the houses to ensure that all fires had been noticed and extinguished.
In addition, Tom Foley, one of the assistant Albemarle County executives, suited up and surveyed the area to get a feel for what it was like to be a fireman while also evaluating the public safety of the event.
These safety precautions and the laid-back training atmosphere might make the situation seem too comfortable; a real fire emergency is likely to be far less organized or safe. Novices will have to face the most dangerous of emergencies elsewhere.
Luckily (or not) for Charlottesville firemen, they don't have to wait long to actually have that experience. The Albemarle County Rescue Squad is ranked as the 80th busiest fire station in the nation, according to Firehouse Magazine.
To have enough firefighters to answer all of the 2,400 emergency calls each year -- about six to eight a night on average -- the Fire Squad even recruits from the University, showing you don't have to look past Grounds to find some people with a high tolerance for heat.
Of the approximately 80 firefighters present on Saturday, about 15 were current University students or alumni, the majority of which serve the Seminole Trail division of firefighters. The Seminole Trail fire squad has been employing University students for 10 years.
Fourth-year Anthropology major and Captain David Straus has been working with the Seminole Trail firefighters since his first year, when he attended a presentation during the Fall Activities Fair. He volunteers for one night a week and one weekend a month, for a total of about 40 hours a month. Also among the seasoned veterans of the business were junior firemen, as young as 16 years old.
It's somewhat sobering to think that while some students try to set their deodorant on fire, people not much older than they must respond to that fire alarm call. But through the Fire Academy and occasional training exercises such as this one, Albemarle residents can be confident that firefighters of any age are ready for any emergency.
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