Firefighters shimmy through labyrinth for training

Will Lewis and Josh Falcon sounded like Darth Vader as they crawled through a low, narrow maze. Wearing full protective gear, including their oxygen tank and mask, their goal was to grab a dummy fashioned of reused fire hose and pull it to safety.

The exercise, held at Suncoast Technical College Fire Academy, was designed to simulate a rescue of an injured firefighter in a collapsed building.

“What we’re doing is called a rapid intervention crew, or RIC. They’re acting as if a mayday was called by a firefighter who is down and needs to be rescued,” Longboat Key Fire Rescue Capt. David Eggleston said. “They go in with some equipment to rescue a downed firefighter and bring them out.”

The wooden labyrinth had an entrance about 3 feet tall by 2 feet wide. Inside, a tangled fire hose, metal pipes and narrowed passages made maneuvering through in full gear a tall task.

“On the first wedge I got stuck with my arms pinned back,” Lewis said to Falcon, a fellow firefighter/paramedic, after the two completed the exercise in 13 minutes.

“Any time you put an air pack or (breathing apparatus) on your face, it’s already a little claustrophobic feeling. If the structure is on fire, it’s going to be pitch black conditions where you can’t see anything,” Falcon said. “It’s definitely a mental thing.”

It was also physical. The dummy weighed about 130 pounds and was wearing an oxygen tank on its back. Dragging the simulated patient through the maze added another layer of difficulty to the rescue operation.

Photo by S.T. Cardinal

Lewis and Falcon were not able to use radios during the exercise and donned darkened visors to simulate a smoke-filled setting. That’s where teamwork, strengthened through years working together, comes into play.

“Me and Will have been on C-shift for like nine and a half years. We actually got hired together,” Falcon said. “You get pretty close with the guys that you work with. They’re like family away from home. We eat together, we train together and then it translates to when we’re on calls.”

Eggleston, who also serves as an instructor at STC, holds monthly exercises with every firefighter paramedic with LKFR, each a simulation of different scenarios a firefighter/paramedic may encounter during a call. The department also sends firefighters to conferences out of town for special training.

Photo by S.T. Cardinal

Though it’s not a likely occurrence for a Longboat Key firefighter to be trapped in a burning structure, being prepared is important.

“We call it the high acuity, low frequency situation,” Eggleston said. “It’s not something that happens a lot, but when it does happen we have to be ready for it.”