BURN ROOMS … The burn rooms themselves are filled with straw or pallets and lit ablaze, with windows and vents being used by trainers to control the temperatures of the fire(s).
By: Anna Wozniak
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
anna@thevillagereporter.com
There’s a strip of land owned by the City of Bryan about five minutes outside of town, off of County Road D by the train tracks, that has seen it all.
Early in the city’s history, the land was home to a farm. The farmhouse itself was up on a hill, as the land has always been prone to flooding -being right along the river and low-lying.
After the farmhouse lay abandoned and the city claimed the property, the low lying land was used as a city dump in the 1970’s, with the old house looking down at what used to be a family farm.
The scene changed when the Bryan City Fire Department took it over, converting the space to one of the best training centers in the area.
Today, the property has just seen the completion of one of the most advanced live burn training facilities where those battling fires throughout the county have gone to train.
There are different aspects to the live burn training facility, and there is a ton going on. Most imposingly is the three story building serving to mimic fire rescue conditions.
With two burn rooms, rappelling wall, sprinkler simulation, re-configurable maze, and Denver maneuver training window, one might think that there is little not offered by this one amenity alone.
That’s just the first thing you see when you arrive at the Bryan Fire Department training facility. On the other side of the drive, you see what looks like a segment of train track with a train car on it, a platform with what are the crude fundamentals of an automobile in simple sheet metal, and an array of twisted metal configurations.
What is unbeknownst to the average eye, is that all of this equipment is connected through LP (liquified petroleum) gas.
The trainers use this cleaner fuel to emulate disastrous events like train fires, car fires, and flammable liquid fires so that our brave firefighters can be prepared for the real thing.
Behind the live burn facility is a training pavilion, roof-emulator (where plywood is changed out on a roof like situation so that they may practice cutting through it), flammable liquids center, and a building with what can only best be described as a fake house for rescue training purposes.
Increasingly intimidating are the rescue tunnels, wherein future firefighters squeeze through pipes that create the dark cramped conditions rescuers often find themselves in. The facility doesn’t stop there.
With different types of fire simulations all around, you would think our future firefighters would already be well prepared for the dangers that lie ahead -but the hottest exercise is yet to come.
The flashover simulator gets up to 1,500 degrees, with Chief Pool sharing that the experience will start to melt safety gear goggles in seconds if those nearest to the flashover origin aren’t careful.
“We tell them to not even touch themselves, it gets so hot. We have someone else with gloves come by and take the gear off of them so they can get away from the trapped heat,” shared Chief Pool when questioned as to its intensity.
“Even at head height, the gear can only withstand a couple of seconds. It’s important for our people to know what those conditions look and feel like so that they can be prepared, and know that they only have seconds if best to cool it down or get out of there.”
It’s no wonder that the Bryan City Fire Department’s training grounds are a state certified training academy, helping the brave trainees become the best firefighters around.
