NEWARK — Local elected and town officials and media members took part last Sunday in Fire Ops 101, a day-long, hands-on opportunity to learn the challenges first responders face with daily incidents.
The Ocean City IAFF 4269 on Sunday hosted Fire Ops 101 at the fire training center in Newark. Local politicians, including Delegate Mary Beth Carozza, Ocean City Councilmen Tony DeLuca, Wayne Hartman and Matt James, who is already a volunteer firefighter, along with Ocean City Risk Manager Eric Lagstrom and a couple of area media representatives suited up in full turn-out gear including oxygen tanks and masks and battled an active building fire.
“The purpose of this is to educate decision-makers and members of the media and give them a grasp of the labor-intensive work our firefighters do,” said IAFF Local 4269 President Ryan Whittington.
The workshop demonstrated many aspects of fire and emergency medical service operations, from suiting up in the proper protective gear to putting out actual fires. Each of the scenarios gave participants the opportunity to do what firefighters and paramedics face on a day-to-day basis. Each participant learned how to use the self-contained breathing apparatus essential in heavy smoke. The participants were also given instruction on how to respond to anticipated events of fire behavior.
Split into two teams, the participants entered a burning building, put out the fire and carried out a victim in the form of a dummy used as part of training exercises. The first team included Carozza, DeLuca, Hartman and James, while the second team included Lagstrom and members of the local media. Before the teams undertook the appointed task, however, Whittingon prepared them for what they would face.
“We’re going to put you on the front lines and show you why we have a certain number of people on a truck and the different tasks each one does,” he said. “The job is dangerous and labor-intensive and every minute can save lives.”
Among those participating in last Sunday’s Fire Ops 101 were, from left, Ocean City Today Staff Writer Kara Hallissey, Ocean City Risk Manager Eric Lagstrom, The Dispatch Managing Editor Shawn Soper, Delegate Mary Beth Carozza and Ocean City Councilmen Tony DeLuca, Wayne Hartman and Matt James. Photo by OCFD
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of the training for the participants was getting used to the oxygen tank and mask they would need for breathing once they entered the dark, smoke-filled building. Whittington explained what most of the participants took for granted in their daily lives would not be available to them during the drill.
“You’re going to see that your senses are taken away, senses you use every day in your jobs,” he said. “We’re going to take away your sight, take away any sense of feel and you’re hearing will be diminished.”
The first task included getting into cumbersome gear including the oxygen tank and mask. Participants then rode into the scene on a fire truck, dismounted and began unloading the hose in preparation for entering the fire training facility, in which the professionals had lit a robust fire with thick, gray smoke. The elected officials and media members than climbed the steps to the first floor, opened the door and entered the burning building. One team member operated the fire hose while the others guided the hose and assisted in other ways.
Once the fire was knocked down, the team members carried out a victim in the form of a dummy on the floor near the entrance to the building. Throughout the drill, which took approximately 10 minutes from start to finish, professional firefighters and paramedics guided the amateurs through the process. Before the actual drills began, however, the participants received some classroom training from professional firefighters and paramedics, particularly on the challenges of getting used to the breathing apparatus.
“There are a lot of bells and whistles, but generally we all take breathing for granted,” said Ocean City Fire Department Captain Trevor Steedman. “Everything is time-sensitive. When we get to a building, the first thing we do is a survivability assessment and make decisions with very little information. The tanks give us about 12-15 minutes worth of air and we have to use it very efficiently.”
Steedman explained how firefighters and paramedics assess each situation based on a scale of what they can control and what they can’t control and used a graph with a small portion of the former in the center.
“There is a very small core of what we can control, and another area of things we can influence,” he said. “The largest area includes things we have no control over whatsoever.”
Steadman told the participants the unique nature of the resort area and its rural surroundings left firefighters preparing for wide range of potential incidents each day.
“There is this huge diversity in Ocean City and Worcester County,” he said. “We have to prepare for a high-rise fire and a chicken house fire.”
The participants also received AED and CPR training, actively revived a victim and continued treating the victim in an ambulance. The event also included hazardous material, of HAZMAT training. The training exercise only enhanced the participants’ utmost respect for firefighters, paramedics and first responders, who do amazing work in stifling hot, smoky, dark conditions with seemingly hundreds of pounds of gear on their backs.
While the participants completed the crash-course training in about a half a day on Sunday, Steedman explained the firefighters and paramedics spend countless hours drilling for all types of scenarios, not only to ensure they and their colleagues are safe, but more importantly, the public.
“It’s not about us,” he said. “It’s about that little four-year-old in flannel pajamas at the end of that hallway.”
For their part, the participants gained an enhanced respect for the hard work firefighters, paramedics and first responders do on a daily basis.
“Attending the training exercise was very insightful,” said Hartman. “It definitely increased by appreciation for what they do.”
DeLuca agreed the experience was certainly eye-opening.
“It was certainly more than I expected,” he said. “What struck me the most was the weight of what we had on. To walk up those stairs pulling that awkward and heavy hose and enter that burning building gave me a greater appreciation of what they do.”
DeLuca said the controlled and comparatively brief experience gave him a deep respect for the work firefighters and paramedics do in larger, uncontrolled situations.
“They make it look so easy when you watch people go up ladders and battle fires and rescue victims in all that gear with heavy equipment,” he said. “When I got in there, I lost all my senses and couldn’t see and it was extremely hot, but that was just a fairly easy exercise for us novices.”
For her part, Carozza said participating in Fire Ops 101 gave her additional insight into the dedication of the firefighters and paramedics.
“The hands-on experience really allows you to have an appreciation of the public safety work of our firefighters and EMS personnel, as well as the importance of the constant training and safety equipment,” she said. “When I understood the strict time requirements of suiting up and arriving on the scene in less than six minutes, I realized that this commitment to excellence saves lives, that constant, repeat training was key, and confidence in the safety equipment was critical.”
Carozza knows a little something about first responses of epic proportions. She was working in the Pentagon during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
“Over the years, my respect for our firefighters has continued to grow,” she said. “I will never forget watching our firefighters on the scene, in action at the Pentagon on Sept. 11. They fought their hearts out and helped send a message to the world that we may have been hit, but we’re up and running.”