Last week the Sullivan Fire Protection District hosted the annual Junior Firefighter Academy again, with thirty juniorn firefighters from all over the state attending and participating, and all of them graduated at the end of the week as well. Several instructors from area fire departments also participated and assisted in the instruction, both classroom and on hands training. This year we saw juniors from as far away as Leadwood and Warrenton, participating in the weeklong classes. I was able to photograph the auto extrication training and the live burn training as well for a few hours each day.
Below is Sullivan FD Instructor Damon Sumpter assisting a junior firefighter in cutting the roof posts to enable removing the roof if needed….
..and next is a Cuba FD Instructor Bryan Wendell assisting Sullivan Junior Firefighter Justin Reed with a Haligan Tool….
and he also assists Sullivan Junior Firefighter Drew Osborn on the Jaws of Life in opening a car door…
Juniors also learned how to hook up hydraulic hoselines to the power generators that supply power to the tools…
..how to cut cars apart if necessary to remove victims of crashes…
..and even cut them in two if needed…
..here St Clair Instructors worked both sides of the car at the same time…
…cars donated to the department in one piece, were removed in several pieces…
here one of the juniors from Warrenton is shown assisting cutting a door post…
..and everyone in action here...
and here is a group shot of the Instructors present for the Auto Extrication Training Class…
Then on Friday morning, as I was on my way home from work in St Louis County, I stopped off at the Boles Fire District`s Burn Training Center behind the Labadie Power Plant…..
and photographed the live burn training and smokehouse training…here the juniors enter the burn trailer in teams to observe how fire builds up from a small fire in an enclosed area to a larger fire in a matter of minutes, they can see how certain items burn and the gasses they give off, radiating heat setting fire to a piece of furniture across the room, how a short burst of water from a charged hoseline will cool the fire and heat buildup in a room or allow the steam conversion to extinguish a fire…all this while in full protective clothing and wearing an air pack as well as having a charged hoseline in their hands and two safety teams outside ready to quickly enter and assist if needed….
Here is Drew Osborn with his team masking up and preparing to enter the trailer, with Leadwood Instructor Matt Perry to the left…
and after making sure everyone`s gear is ready…
the juniors subsequently enter the trailer ….
…each junior enters the trailer on their hands and knees, crawling inside and approaching the fire at the end of the trailer, holding onto the charged hoseline, with Cuba Instructor Bryan Wendell bringing up the rear…
..and then they wait and watch the buildup of the fire…
…in the following photo is Team One inside the burn trailer…
..and Team Two inside the trailer…
..and the Third Crew inside the trailer…
..and then the crews come out of the trailer much like they went in, crawling…
Not only was it hot inside the trailer, but outside as well so teams were rotated in and out of their coats and gear due to the humidity and heat of the day to prevent anyone from overheating…
Here is a group photo of the juniors at the Burn Center Training…
..and the Instructors present for training as well…
..soon after I headed home, their training was cut short by a strong storm that entered the area and later that evening all of the juniors in attendance for the week graduated in a ceremony at Station One.