Firefighters undergo survival training

By Staff
Melissa Cason
Firefighters train regularly to keep the skills needed to prepare them for the unexpected.
While the training they receive is good, quality training, it generally focuses on the search and rescue of others.
This week the firefighters from the Russellville Fire Department focused on firefighter survival as they were taken through real-life scenarios.
Fire Chief Joe Mansell said 99 percent of the training firefighters go through is to save someone. Firefighters rarely train on how to get out alive should something go wrong.
"We have all trained on this in the fire college, but many of us have been firefighters for many years, and these skills may not be as fine tuned as they should be. As firefighters, we focus on saving others. The purpose of this training to change that."
The department brought in Fire College Instructor John James to work with the firefighters on Mayday training.
James took every firefighter in an abandoned house. They were blindfolded with all their firefighting gear on. They were instructed that they had been separated from their partner and their air is running low. Each firefighter had five minutes to find his way out of the building before running out of air.
James said the firefighters are taught to put one hand on a wall, and go either right or left. Firefighters are also taught to find the fire hose, and follow it out of the building.
"The key is recognizing which end of the hose leads to the truck," James said. "Some firefighters missed the hose all together while others followed it in the wrong direction."
James said some of the firefighters did not make it out of the building 'alive' while others barely made it out before running out of air.
"You have to remember the majority of what we do is for other people," James said. "This training will help ourselves get out of dangerous situations."
Mansell said the training hit home with the firefighters, making them aware of the dangerous consequences of not knowing basic skills to get out alive.
"I know this training opened some eyes this week," Mansell said. "We hope to do more mayday training more often to practice these self-survival skills."