Where there’s smoke, there’s fire — and there are firefighters happy to train.

Thanks largely to a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security, the fire districts of East Clackamas County now have a cutting edge
live fire training environment.

$288,000 came from the Assistance to Firefighters program, which was
matched by $8,000 each from Hoodland, Sandy, Boring and Estacada fire
districts. The result is a bright red 53-foot trailer that serves as a mobile fire
training simulator. The trailer is shared between the districts.

The trailer came from FireBlast 451, a company in Riverside, Calif. This
portable, self-contained fire simulator contains a stove fire simulation prop, a
couch fire simulation prop and a prop designed to show what happens when
flames roll across the ceiling. It also has a smoke system, a forcible entry
door and simulated basement access. There is even a ventilation prop on the
roof, all ready for fresh two-by-fours and plywood.

Safety features of the trailer include gas detection, temperature monitoring,
pilot and flame monitoring, a fuel delivery system with fail safe valves, as well
as automatic and manual safety shutdowns.

As with any profession, ongoing training for firefighting is important.

Firefighters can practice medical skills and vehicle extrication skills, but there
are few opportunities for firefighters to see controlled live fire situations.

Due to improved fire prevention in this era, there are relatively few structural
fires, which means firefighters need to find other ways to practice fire
suppression techniques.

One traditional training technique is a “burn to learn,” in which the fire
department does a live fire burn of a deteriorating house. Unfortunately, these
are hard to find. Besides which, they are full of potential risks like roof or floor
collapse. Using the FireBlast trailer provides an extra layer of control to the
firefighters and ensures that such training can happen more regularly.

Rookies as well as veteran firefighters can experience live fire situations,
practice search and rescue, ventilate a building and forcibly enter a door.
Moveable walls inside and multiple entries will help keep the experience
unique.

The relatively minimal investment for Hoodland Fire is already paying off.

According to Captain Ron Schmitt, the firefighters of Hoodland’s 2009 training
company were able to use the trailer multiple times during their training
rather than wait for an appropriate burn to learn, which can take months.

They experienced smoke and flames in a completely controlled environment
as a part of their training, becoming more competent firefighters as a result.