Education Begins at Home
Neil Narine stood outside the burn building, peeled off his fire helmet and face mask, and wiped the sweat from his face. A staff assistant to Illinois Rep. Judy Biggert, Narine was one of 10 congressional staffers to participate in the Fourth Annual Illinois Fire Service Home Day today.
“It was a great experience knowing how the fire department actually works and being in the burn building. I just don’t know how they do it,” Narine said as he pulled off his gloves.
This year’s Illinois Fire Service Home Day gave congressional staffers a chance to use turnout gear, breathing apparatus and thermal imagers; find their way through different levels of a burn structure; and experience a flashover. Not only was the exercise designed to let staffers see the apparatus and equipment purchased through FIRE Grants, but to better understand the changing role of the fire service.
“The thermal-imaging cameras were incredible. We did it without the cameras and then with the thermal imagers,” Narine said. “I don’t know how the firefighters could be in there without the cameras.”
The program also included a demonstration of automobile extrication and a side-by-side live-burn demonstration in rooms with residential sprinklers and without sprinklers.
The Carol Stream (Ill.) Fire Department and Chief Mike Kanzia organized and hosted the event. Guest speakers included Illinois Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS) President Jay Reardon and FEMA Region 5 Acting Director Don Mobley. The event was a joint effort sponsored by the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association of Illinois, the Fire Apparatus Manufacturers Association, and the Fire and Emergency Manufacturers and Services Association.
In addition to the Congressional staffers, almost 100 fire chiefs, officers and firefighters attended the event, as did Illinois members of FAMA and FEMSA.
“The turnout was absolutely incredible and I think the firefighter experience was really important and added a lot to the event,” said Paul Darley, president of W.S. Darley and co-chair of the event.
Another congressional staffer who suited up was Dan Shrigley, scheduler/staff assistant for Rep. Melissa Bean.
“It’s surreal, that room of smoke,” he said. “I knew that I wouldn’t see, but you really get to appreciate what people do in those situations. The cameras are amazing. I didn’t know the thermal imagers could also take the temperatures of a room.”
Several FEMSA members also suited up to participate in the live-fire exercise including Pete Sremac of C.E. Niehoff, Teri Haidl of Eagle Engraving and Jhan Dolphin of RealWheels. As Dolphin came out of the burn building he commented, “It’s unbelievable. I don’t know how these guys years ago could do this job without this equipment. Everyone warns you about the dangers of smoke in a fire and having smoke alarms. Anyone who ever does this realizes it and the reality is that you can’t be found in a smoky building. It’s amazing.”
FIRE CHIEF Associate Publisher Greg Toritto also geared up and ate some smoke. “It was a lot of fun, very interesting,” Toritto said. “You couldn’t do it without the thermal imager. It felt weird the first few minutes. If they wanted to play a trick on you and leave the room, you’d freak out,” said Toritto.
Each staffer that came out of that smoking building this morning, views the fire service a little different now and that’s a step in the right direction to educate our Congressional leaders about America’s firefighters. What are you doing to educate your congressional leaders?
June 4th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Was this session recorded? We would love to get a cd/dvd of the days activities and any interviews conducted with the staffers.
June 5th, 2009 at 7:14 am
I think this is a great idea. Some many of our political leaders have a very small idea of what we do. I would love to take this one step further. I think having them do a “walk in our shoes” approach where they spend the a day, part of a day or whatever actually responding to calls, being in the station seeing whatelse we do besides the hot & smoky stuff.
June 9th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
I would like to thank all the Staffers present and even some of the vendors that donned turnout gear and SCBA to actually go in and see what it is like to work a fire. I originally thought they would look at the flashover simulators and not really go in. My hats off to all of you. Thank you to Janet for being with us and writing about this great experience. The Home Day Committee did an awesome job at this, especially Chief Tom Deegan and Paul Darley. It was our pleasure to host this event. My personnel are some of the best in the area and look forward to any training opportunities. My thanks to the men and women of the Carol Stream Fire Protection District for all you do to make this District great. We did not record the event, except thru photos.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:19 am
No better way to show the politicans what we do, and what we have to deal with, than letting them experience it first hand. Hopefully they will have a better appreciation for the tools we need, and why we need them next time we have a budget request.
Well done !!
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