Mayor’s feet to the fire… literally

For roughly 30 minutes, two city council members crouched inside a shipping container Monday afternoon, dressed in full firefighter gear to experience extreme heat, controlled flames and plumes of smoke.

Mayor Scott Gillingham and Coun. Vivian Santos (Point Douglas), chair of community services, volunteered to take part in Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service fire dynamics training to get a firsthand look at how emergency crews learn to battle blazes.

A few minutes after getting up close with real flames, his face still red and skin bearing the imprint of a helmet, the mayor said the experience was both remarkably hot and educational.

“It was pretty invigorating, for sure, but … what’s really good about this, for our crews, obviously, is this is known. This is a controlled environment … (It’s) less stressful for them because they know what they’re going into,” said Gillingham.

When emergency workers tackle real blazes, conditions can bring unwelcome risks and surprises, while the training facility allows crews to learn while they’re closely monitored and backup safety measures can protect them.

Monday’s extra precautions included a staff member paired with each elected official, a second fire hose ready for use and classroom training before the exercise.

However, the level of heat reached at the WFPS Training Academy’s L-shaped shipping container structure still sounded a little daunting at first, the mayor said.

“(It’s) over 1,000 degrees (F) at the top (of the structure). And to see the way they’re knocking back fires, strategically fighting the fire, was quite the experience, and I’m told there’s … no (other) fire department in Canada doing this kind of training,” said Gillingham.

WFPS deputy chief Scott Wilkinson said the mayor and Santos were the first two city council members to experience the training, which provides the most realistic exposure to a house fire that’s possible under safe, controlled conditions.

“It’s a … scientifically designed program to have the fire replicate the heat levels it would be … So, in the environment they’re in, (positioned) at the low crouch where the firefighters work, it’s up to 100, 120 degrees (F). If you go up to three to five feet in the air, it gets up to 300. If you go to the ceiling, they’re going to be experience temperatures of 1,000 degrees (F) … The beauty of this is it teaches firefighters to recognize conditions and also, more importantly, how to handle and alleviate those conditions and make the environment safe,” said Wilkinson.

WFPS firefighters have learned from the “live fire simulations” at the facility for about the past eight years.

Wilkinson said the training includes using strategic spurts of water to tackle the fire, not necessarily dousing it, while firefighters also carefully control how much air gets inside the confined space as they enter it.

Gillingham said the experience should help the two elected officials better understand the emergency department’s needs.

“When our fire paramedic team are talking about, for example, needed investments in equipment, or in training facilities, this helps us understand what they’re talking about, when they’re making their budgetary requests,” he said.

Wilkinson said fire crews usually spend about four days on this type of training, which was condensed for a day for the mayor and councillor, since they just observed the process.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

X: @joyanne_pursaga