Junior Fire Academy June 2011

Last week the Sullivan Fire Protection District hosted the annual Junior Firefighter Academy again, with thirty juniorn firefighters from all over the state attending and participating, and all of them graduated at the end of the week as well. Several instructors from area fire departments also participated and assisted in the instruction, both classroom and on hands training. This year we saw juniors from as far away as Leadwood and Warrenton, participating in the weeklong classes. I was able to photograph the auto extrication training and the live burn training as well for a few hours each day.

Auto Extrication Class

Below is Sullivan FD Instructor Damon Sumpter assisting a junior firefighter in cutting the roof posts to enable removing the roof if needed….

Cutting Car Roof As Damon Assists

..and next is a Cuba FD Instructor Bryan Wendell assisting Sullivan Junior Firefighter Justin Reed with a Haligan Tool….

Assisting Justin with Halligan

and he also assists Sullivan Junior Firefighter Drew Osborn on the Jaws of Life in opening a car door…

Hands On Instruction 2

Juniors also learned how to hook up hydraulic hoselines to the power generators that supply power to the tools…

Helping Out

..how to cut cars apart if necessary to remove victims of crashes…

Jimmy and Damon Assist

..and even cut them in two if needed…

Total Destruction Blue Car

..here St Clair Instructors worked both sides of the car at the same time…

St Clair Instructors Instructing

…cars donated to the department in one piece, were removed in several pieces…

Removing the Roof

 

Peeling Back the Roof

here one of the juniors from Warrenton is shown assisting cutting a door post…

Juniors Working on Posts

..and everyone in action here...

Jrs Work Over the Cars

and here is a group shot of the Instructors present for the Auto Extrication Training Class…

Instructors Group

Then on Friday morning, as I was on my way home from work in St Louis County, I stopped off at the Boles Fire District`s Burn Training Center behind the Labadie Power Plant…..

Storm Clouds Approach 2

and photographed the live burn training and smokehouse training…here the juniors enter the burn trailer in teams to observe how fire builds up from a small fire in an enclosed area to a larger fire in a matter of minutes, they can see how certain items burn and the gasses they give off, radiating heat setting fire to a piece of furniture across the room, how a short burst of water from a charged hoseline will cool the fire and heat buildup in a room or allow the steam conversion to extinguish a fire…all this while in full protective clothing and wearing an air pack as well as having a charged hoseline in their hands and two safety teams outside ready to quickly enter and assist if needed….

Here is Drew Osborn with his team masking up and preparing to enter the trailer, with Leadwood Instructor Matt Perry to the left…

Drews Team Masks Up

and after making sure everyone`s gear is ready…

Leadville Assists Stetson

the juniors subsequently enter the trailer ….

Drew Leads His Team Inside Trailer

…each junior enters the trailer on their hands and knees, crawling inside and approaching the fire at the end of the trailer, holding onto the charged hoseline, with Cuba Instructor Bryan Wendell bringing up the rear…

Drewby`s Crew Entering Burn Trailer

 

Drewby`s Crew Entering Live Burn

 

Drewby`s Crew Inside Burn Trailer

..and then they wait and watch the buildup of the fire…

Drewby`s Crew Inside Trailer 2

…in the following photo is Team One inside the burn trailer…

First Crew Inside Burn Trailer 3

..and Team Two inside the trailer…

Second Team Inside Trailer 2A

..and the Third Crew inside the trailer…

Third Crew Enters Trailer

..and then the crews come out of the trailer much like they went in, crawling…

Backing Out of Trailer

Not only was it hot inside the trailer, but outside as well so teams were rotated in and out of their coats and gear due to the humidity and heat of the day to prevent anyone from overheating…

Here is a group photo of the juniors at the Burn Center Training…

Group Shot Juniors 2

..and the Instructors present for training as well…

Group Shot Instructors

..soon after I headed home, their training was cut short by a strong storm that entered the area and later that evening all of the juniors in attendance for the week graduated inĀ  a ceremony at Station One.

Stormy Weather

This has to be the stormiest year I can remember, one of the worst years for tornadoes and severe storms ever. This weekend Sullivan hosted the 25th annual Meramac Community Fair and last night would have wrapped it up with entertainment by Alderwood Band followed by Craig Morgan. While the Alderwood Band was able to start off, Morgan never took the stage due to a large wall cloud entering the fairgrounds with some rotation at the base of it and chasing everyone from the fairgrounds in fear, just before dark settled in last night. Some of our firefighters observed it and said it appeared to come down within feet of the ground before raising back up into the sky and moving northeast. I was able to view a few photos of it taken by amateur shooters and have to admit it did have a scarey look to it.

While all this was going on, I was at work in fire dispatch in St Louis County last night and we had a rough night of storms as well. Just before the first set of many storms rolled through, a Burlington Northern Train derailed in Shrewsbury, one of the six cities I dispatch for, and damaged a trestle, setting off a chain of events that lasted all through the night for those of us in the dispatch center.

After dispatching a first alarm assignment of several trucks to assist the Shrewsbury Fire Department with the derailment and subsequent evacuation of several homes and buildings in the area, storms began rolling through our area from northwest to southeast and we saw heavy rains driven by wind and dangerous lightning in one storm after the other. The wind knocked down power lines and a few trees, some on to homes in the area, and the lightning set off several alarms in homes and businesses, prompting our center to dispatch firefighters and police officers to many calls for the next few hours. By 3 am, all of the firefighters were back in their stations for the remainder of the night, or so we thought…and a few minutes later, we received a 911 call from a resident of Clayton who told us her neighbors home was on fire…a large home and well involved with heavy flames…I dispatched a first alarm assignment once again and on arrival, the bat chief requested a second alarm and so we sent even more firefighters and equipment to the fire….and woke up a few fire chiefs as well. This call lasted until I was relieved at my post by another dispatcher and I was able to then drive home and get some rest….prob the longest and busiest night I have ever seen in several years there.

I took today off to hopefully go rockhunting, but was way too tired to do so today…but did manage to capture a nice sunset tonight…

06262 from Station Five