University Heights firemen use former school for intensive training

UNIVERSITY HIGHTS --?Demolition could start any day at the former Fuchs Mizrachi school on Fenwick Road, but the walls and roof are already full of holes.

The building, originally built as Northwood School, ended its useful life last month as city police and firemen held disaster drills and training on the property. Being able to kick in doors and create holes in the walls made the training more realistic and more valuable to the firemen, said Lt. Bob Perko.

?The more realistic the training is, the more it helps us prepare for an actual emergency. Even though stress is reduced because there are no lives at risk, realistic, hands-on training in live buildings offers some of the best opportunities to use our apparatus and tools to create muscle memory,? he said.

With about 80 classrooms and a variety of doors, both wood and metal, the building offered multiple ways to practice forcible entry, both inside and out. Techniques varied from breaching a simple lock to cutting steel gates in the hallways.

?We can watch videos all day, but there is no way to do it without damaging the door, so we can?t practice very often,? Perko said.

In addition to re-learning basic techniques the squad developed scenarios. For example, while practicing breaching the concrete-block walls, the men were told they were in the basement of a business and trapped by the fire. They had to figure out how to get into the next business in order to be rescued.

The building also allowed them to literally use all the tools in their toolbox, from axes and sledgehammers to pry bars, and more specific tools.

?In a time of emergency, when a situation is life and death, we have to be able to pick the right tool and be able to use it,? he said. ?That muscle memory kicks in at 3 a.m. when we are on the roof of a house that is on fire to ventilate it, or when a firefighter is searching for a trapped or unconscious occupant.?

A variety of search and rescue drills involved residential, commercial and school scenarios, including school district safety standards. The squads were able to practice an option known as VES, which stands for vent, enter, and search, which is relatively new to the fire service, Perko said. The gymnasium auditorium and cafeteria also provided venues for ?wide area searches,? using full gear and oxygen masks.

?In a smoke-filled building, you have to be able to feel objects with the tools and feel the way around with the rope,? he said.

Ladder drills included basic things, such as being able to pick out the best place to put a ladder, to learning how to catch a ladder when going out an upper-floor window head-first, wearing full gear. Crews also used the parking lot to time how fast they could park the truck, then unroll and hook up the hoses.

?A truck only has 750 gallons of water, so we have a limited time to attach the lines to the hydrants,? he said. ?We do it here (the city hall lot) but we have limited space, and everyone knows where to place the ladder.?

But it was the roof of the building that provided the most unique training, including practicing putting holes in the roof from the ladder truck. The multiple layers of roofing created a challenge.

?They don?t make a saw big enough to go through all those layers. We had to try different blades to get through the different layers. Different roofs pose different hazards in actual fire conditions,? Perko said. ?We practiced crawling through the roof and getting other firefighters out if the roof caves in.?

All the practice helps develop trust and teamwork, he said. The department is spurred on by the memory of a fire two years ago, on July 11, 2011, when three of their fellow firemen were seriously burned fighting a house fire on Milton Avenue. One fireman, Paul Nees, had third-degree burns over 20 percent of his body.

?We have his gear hanging up, as a reminder to be safe,? Perko said. ?Since that fire, we try to take an even more proactive approach to fire safety.?

216-986-5861

Twitter: @SusanKetchum

Source: http://www.cleveland.com/university-heights/index.ssf/2013/07/university_heights_firemen_use.html

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