The World of Firefighting

I have been meaning to post something new here for a few weeks and am just now getting around to it. I figured that since I have told everyone that I am a big Fire Buff that I would make an entry solely about firefighting related topics.

A few Saturdays ago, I had the opportunity to go out to the Russiaville Fire Department, which is one of the county fire departments in Howard County, and meet the guys out there. I was also able to sit in during the classroom portion of a R.I.T. class that RFD was taking.

For those that don't know what R.I.T. is, R.I.T. is an acronym for Rapid Intervention Team. The purpose of a R.I.T. is to standby outside a burning structure while the first crew is inside battling a fire. The R.I.T. is utilized when a member or multiple members of the crew that is fighting the fire becomes lost or incapacitated in some way. It is the R.I.T.'s job to go in and search for the lost of incapacitated firefighters and get them out of the building.

The R.I.T. class taught the firefighters how to utilize a R.I.T. and taught them the techniques necessary to perform R.I.T. successfully. It was a very interesting class to sit in on and I really enjoyed it and also learned a lot.

I would like to thank everyone at RFD for making me feel welcome and for allowing me to sit in on the class. I really enjoyed the time that I spent with them.

Early this morning, around 1:30, I was awaken by the county fire tones on my scanner. Harrison Twp. Fire was dispatched to a fully involved business structure fire. Dispatch informed Harrison Twp. that the structure was fully involved with flames shooting from the roof. Harrison Twp. requested that Taylor Twp. and Russiaville be toned out for manpower assistance with the fire.

Parts of the building had collapsed due to the heat of the fire and was a dangerous operation. From what I can remember, the Incident Commander told all the firefighters working that they needed to fight the fire from the outside because he thought that a flashover was possible. For those who don't know, flashover occurs when materials reach their ignition temperature at the same time. When this happens, everything bursts into flames at the same time. Flashover is very dangerous and if a firefighter is caught in one, there chances of survival are slim. So crews continued to fight the fire. In the end, it took roughly two hours for the fire to be put out.

Firefighting is a very interesting profession and I really enjoy learning anything that I can about it.

'Till next time.

Jason