Ogden firefighters practice during simulated basement fire
(KERA WIllIAMS/Standard-Examiner) Ogden City firefighters pull a fellow firefighter up through a hole they cut out of the floor as part of a training drill simulating a basement fire in an empty house in Ogden on Wednesday.
(KERA WIllIAMS/Standard-Examiner) Captain Rich King and Captain Susan Davis talk about basement fires before a training drill at an empty house in Ogden on Wednesday.
(KERA WIllIAMS/Standard-Examiner) Ogden City firefighters participate in a training drill simulating a basement fire in an empty house in Ogden on Wednesday.
(KERA WIllIAMS/Standard-Examiner) Ogden City firefighters participate in a training drill simulating a basement fire in an empty house in Ogden on Wednesday.
(KERA WIllIAMS/Standard-Examiner) Ogden City firefighters participate in a training drill simulating a basement fire in an empty house in Ogden on Wednesday.
OGDEN — Of all the locations for a fire, firefighters say that basements are the most dangerous.
That’s because there are laundry rooms full of clothes and boxes of clutter that provide fuel to the fire. And sometimes, there’s no way out.
Basements fill up fast with heat and smoke, both of which kill quickly.
That’s why Ogden City firefighters were fighting a simulated fire in the basement of a house Wednesday.
“We want to let them know of the hazards,” said Capt. Rich King, who conducted the training.
“I’ve been on basement fires where it has been near misses,” he said of coming close to losing a firefighter.
“Honestly, on basement fires, it’s more recovery than rescue,” King said. “If you have fire venting from windows, you aren’t going to send anybody in.”
King said he attended a basement training exercise in March in Indianapolis and he wanted to pass on what he learned.
“We want to teach our firefighters what to expect, how to react and how to get in and out,” King said.
The exercise included machine-produced smoke throughout the entire basement.
With very low visibility, King said firefighters have to rely on sound to tell them where to move to do their jobs.
The house where the training was conducted is owned by the Salvation Army and is scheduled for demolition.
It was used to house employees and graduates of the Salvation Army’s now disbanded drug rehabilitation program.
Officials wanted to give firefighters the opportunity to train in the home before it is demolished.
About every hour during the day, Monday through Wednesday, a different crew attended the training.
The drill entailed some firefighters going down a flight of stairs into the basement and then discovering that those stairs had collapsed, leaving them no way out,
Other firefighters then had to cut through the thick floors of the older home to rescue their comrades.
Station 3 Capt. Susan Davis said her crew had a problem with the chain saw. But Davis was proud of how quickly her crew adjusted, making a hole as fast as possible, which ended up being more than 10 minutes because of the tough nature of the floor.
Davis’ crew included several new firefighters who just started Monday.
The training was their first opportunity to display their skills outside of the classroom.
That meant they received some criticism from trainers for the way they performed.
For example, some of them forgot to turn around and help their fellow firefighters after they ascended from the hole to the upper floor.
But they’ll probably remember now when it’s the real thing.
King said, “We train them to keep calm, to keep their head on no matter what happens.”
