Firefighters from across the region recently came to Kirkland Lake for five days of training.
According to Kirkland Lake Fire Services Platoon Chief Chris Kazur, the Office of the Fire Marshall has a mobile live fire training unit that is sent around the province on a regular basis.
“It is a live mobile fire trailer that is used to train our firefighters,” he said. “We extended the invitation to all the surrounding departments. We were pretty honoured to have it (come to Kirkland Lake).
Besides Kirkland Lake, fire services from King Kirkland, Kenogami, Round Lake and Larder Lake took part in the training.”
Kazur added the unit is a great resource of the fire marshal’s office, through the Ontario Fire College.
He said, “The main thing we get from this that we really can’t get anywhere else anymore, is actual live fire.
“Inside that unit there are a whole bunch of propone fire props that we use. One of the props is to simulate a couch fire. One of the props they have is to simulate a commercial stove fire.
“The operators from the Ontario Fire College; there is an operator outside and an operator inside the unit with us training. It keeps everything safe.”
Kazur further explained that firefighters can be sent into the unit for fire suppression, search and rescue, mayday calls.
“We did all kinds of scenarios,” he said. “We laddered the building. Because it is two stories, we can practice going into the main floor and fighting our way up a stairway to fight fires.
“We can also start on the exterior of the building, on the second floor and work our way down to fight a basement fire.”
Kazur emphasized that is extremely difficult to simulate these types of scenarios in a safe manner without an actual live fire.
He also stressed that there are safeguards in place in case something was to go wrong during the exercise.
“There are emergency buttons all on the inside so if there is a problem, all somebody has to do is smack the emergency button and it automatically shuts off the propane, it automatically shuts off pilot light, it shuts off the smoke machine and it turns on all the fans,” Kazur said.
“So, if something real happens, we can just hit an emergency stop and right away everything stops. We have no more danger. It is a very controlled environment where we can do live fire training that is almost impossible to get elsewhere.”
Kazur also noted for some of the participants this is the first time they have seen a live fire rolling over their heads.
“This is what real fires are like,” he said, adding doing these exercises all adds confidence in a firefighter’s abilities and the equipment that is used to protect them.