Standpipe training - december 2023

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Call fighter training for December 2023 concentrated on suppressing fires in multi-story buildings.

Training sessions often begin at the station, where the firefighters learn theory, then travel to a City site for practice, in this case, the Main Street parking garage.

The first of two scenarios was a fire in the middle of the third floor of a building. The firefighters, dressed in full gear weighing about 75 lbs., strapped compressed-air tanks to their backs and hoisted rolled-up 100-foot hoses (50 lbs. each) on their shoulders. Knowing that elevators are inoperative in a burning structure, they climbed the garage stairwell to the top level, feeding out their hoses as they went.

A firefighter stayed behind on the landing to connect the hose to a standpipe one “floor” below the one where the fire was. Trying to connect to a standpipe on the floor where a fire is would be dangerous if not impossible, because of the smoke and fire hazards encountered at that level. Everyone gathered and surveyed how they would handle the hoses, including attaching 50-foot extensions (25 lbs. each) if necessary.

With the fire out, firefighters tightly packed the dry hoses. In a real fire, the wet hoses are gathered loosely, transported back to the station and laid out on the drying racks in the basement.

As soon as the hoses were packed, they were unpacked to tackle the second scenario: a car fire halfway down the garage. This involved locating a standpipe closer to the fire. (The garage also has standpipes in the middle and at the far end.) When the car fire was announced as “out,” the firefighters packed them up again and carried them down the stairwell to the truck where they’re stored, ready for the next “real” call.