Flashover training in works

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/02/2007 (6900 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CITY firefighters will likely start training in May on how to deal with deadly fireballs similar to the one that killed two of their comrades Feb. 4 and seriously burned two others.

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service Deputy Chief Ken Sim said Friday a deal is in the works between the American maker of the flashover simulator and a city service group that will see the $100,000 training device donated to the department this spring.

“We continue to be in awe of the willingness of groups in Winnipeg to help out emergency services,” Sim said.

The simulator looks like a large metal shipping container, but it’s designed to burn wood to such high temperatures it creates a flashover or rollover, an intense fireball that consumes everything in its path.

Sim said the simulator will teach firefighters to evaluate conditions, like smoke patterns, so they can better prepare and deal with flashovers in real conditions.

Captains Harold Lessard and Tom Nichols were killed three weeks ago in a sudden flashover while searching the second floor of a house at 15 Gabrielle Roy for possible fire victims.

Two other firefighters escaped and a third jumped out a window with serious burn injuries. Lionel Crowther remains in hospital with burn wounds to his arms and upper body.

Firefighter Ed Wiebe was also trapped in the same flashover. He remains in hospital with burn injuries to 70 per cent of his body.

Careless disposal of a cigarette was the cause of the fire and an investigation by the province’s fire commissioner is continuing.

Sim said the simulator will be installed at the service’s training facility on north McPhillips Avenue. The service has a propane-fuelled simulator, but Sim said it’s based more on theatrics than hands-on firefighter training, so its use is limited.

He said as part of the deal, the American manufacturer of the simulator will cut its retail price almost half in exchange for feedback from the service about how well it performs in cold temperatures. There are no Canadian manufacturers of flashover simulators.

The city service group — Sim declined to name it — will then pick up the $50,000 cost through its fundraising efforts.

This is not the first time service organizations and private citizens have made donations to the fire paramedic service.

In the past decade, groups like the Kinsmen Club of Winnipeg have bought thermal-imaging cameras — cameras that see through smoke — for the service. In 2002, an 85-year-old Winnipeg woman donated $23,000 for such a camera after she saw how firefighters use them to save lives.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca