Photo By Capt. Rachel Ingram | Staff Sgt. Matthew Archer, 445th Civil Engineer Squadron, climbs through the window of...... read more read more
Four firefighters from the 445th Civil Engineer Squadron completed a Department of Defense firefighter rescue and survival course Sept 20-24, 2021 at Grissom Air Reserve Base, Indiana. Three additional 445th CES firefighters served as instructors for this iteration of the course, which is open to the entire DOD community and held each spring and fall at Grissom.
The one-week course incorporates many elements of training otherwise covered in shorter sessions and combines them into a small group intensive. During this iteration, the Air Force, Army, Air National Guard, and DOD civilian employees comprised the nine student class.
“The training is progressive, but it moves quickly,” said Staff Sgt. Thomas Drouillard, firefighter. “Not only did we learn the skills, we also completed them blindfolded, then amidst smoke and in confined spaces.”
The first two days of training emphasized survival and self-preservation. Days three and four highlighted techniques for rescuing other firefighters from burning structures. The final day featured a multi-hour simulation exercise with a live fire component.
“Rain or shine, we trained,” said Tech. Sgt. Brian Kutcher, firefighter.
On one of the ladder training days, it poured rain all day long.
“That’s when you use the rails, not the rungs!” added Staff Sgt. Matthew Archer, firefighter.
The full week of grueling 10-hour workdays resulted in the equivalent of monthly or quarterly training, accomplished in just one course.
“If it’s not a physical hurdle, then it might be mental, or spiritual, or a leadership hurdle,” Archer said. “You’re going to meet some type of hurdle, and you’re going to have to face it.”
The first day included an air consumption test on an obstacle course.
“One minute we were doing a cardio circuit workout, going as hard as we could, and the next moment we were laying facedown in the gravel trying to conserve our oxygen tanks for nearly an hour,” Archer said.
“Beads of sweat were running along my brow, but because of my mask, I couldn’t wipe them away. You think that doing the workout is really hard and at first you’re grateful to lie down and rest, but then as the time drags by you can hear your heart beating and feel the gravel digging in to your skin. You realize that lying there is worse than doing the obstacle course. You just had to stay there in your mask and mentally power through.”
Another training objective required the students, wearing full gear, to navigate through a small, horizontal tunnel full of intersecting wires. When they went through the tunnel blindfolded, the wires would cut between their body and the oxygen tank on their backs, forcing them to backtrack.
“It’ll check you,” said Tech. Sgt. Zachariah Hastings, firefighter. “You never know what is going to freak you out, until it does.”
For Hastings, it was a 14x20 inch hole that he had to crawl through. When the radio near his shoulder snagged on the wall, he panicked.
“You’re trapped in there and you can’t see. You can start to freak out,” he said. “Throughout the course, I was having to go places in my head just to stay on task and not give up.”
The mental challenges associated with the course were compounded by the grim reality of the risks associated with firefighting, the Airmen noted.
“Every training objective taught in the course is based on real events where a firefighter was seriously injured or killed in the line of duty,” Archer said.
The techniques which could have saved those firefighters are now taught and practiced to strengthen firefighters’ skill sets and boost survival rates in emergency response settings.
“The stories are really sad. They would find these firefighters perished with the tools they needed lying right by them,” Hastings said, “but they either didn’t know, or had never practiced, the techniques they needed in that situation.”
The students practiced using ropes, carabiners, firehose, webbing, and more to rescue downed firefighters inside a burning building, mirroring the historic, real circumstances which tragically resulted in loss of life.
“A lot of the rescue techniques, I’d heard of but never done,” Hastings said. “For this stuff to be truly effective, you have to be able to practice it until you’ve got the skill down fast and smooth.”
The final simulation, which required the students to work in small teams, rotating in and out of the building to attack the fire while also searching for a downed firefighter, went on for several hours, which closely mirrors the length of time it typically takes to complete a similar objective in a real world setting.
“During the rescue scenario, we were busting walls, cutting wires, and getting as far as we could before we ran out of air and had to rotate with the next team to take our position and keep pushing forward,” Kutcher said.
At course conclusion, each of the four Airmen said they walked away with not only knowledge of new techniques, but renewed confidence in their own abilities and resilience.
“I know that later on in life when challenges inevitably come, I’ll lean on the fact that I completed this course to carry me through,” Hastings said.
| Date Taken: | 11.10.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 12.05.2021 12:59 |
| Story ID: | 410466 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 48 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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