Longboat Key Fire Rescue Repurpos flooded houses for training

The Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department found a way to make a bad situation positive by taking off briefly demolished houses for training for competence training.

The department crews spent three afternoons in March to practice essential forced entry skills such as opening doors and breaking windows.

The department used houses on the island, which were supposed to be demolished and redesigned because they were flooded in the hurricane Helene. The training of Captain David Eggleston, who recently came to the department in January, promoted the joint efforts together with other department employees.

The deputy boss and fire brigade marshal Jane Mistress worked with the planning, zoning and construction department to identify houses that were approved for the demolition.

Then Eggleston turned to the contractors responsible for demolition to achieve the homeowners through whom he received approval for the implementation of the training.

“From the point of view of the community, we are grateful for the opportunity to avoid positively from a negative,” said deputy boss Mike Regnier.

The firefighting teams trained three days, with each crew spent one afternoon in another house.

On March 13th, one of the layers of the department in a house in the Russel Street, which was flooded during the Hurrican Helene, stepped in a house. The owners previously gave the permission to use the windows and doors of the house for training.

The crew was prepared with hand tools such as a large circular saw, Sawzall, Ax, Suggested hammer and a firefighter Halligan tool.

The unique opportunity enabled firefighters to practice critical skills that would be of crucial importance for entering fires or floods such as hurricanes in order to save captured people.

“This gives the boys the opportunity to practice skills,” said Eggleston. “You can work through problems and talk about the process.”

Photo by Carter Weinhofer

If you practice these skills in a scenario without an emergency, you will build up the repetition and familiarity with the tools and standard procedures. In emergencies, the firefighters are more prepared in an emergency.

The houses that Eggleston found were also a good practice because some windows with hurricane ratings had, as used on March 13. This means that the windows have a stronger glass that makes it more difficult to break.

One of the focus of the training was to break through these windows and to pull the victims safely.

A fireman begins to make a “buying point”, a hole or a fracture in the window of one of the tools such as the Halligan.

Then the crew members alternately changed various cutting tools to open the windows. They tried tools such as a rescue chain saw and a Sawszall, a circular rescue saw.

Photo by Carter Weinhofer

They learned on the spot which tools were better to cut through different materials, whether it was a hurricane or the windowsill.

When there was an excerpt in the window, the crew was able to push the glass out. From there they could find a ceiling or a similar object that lies over the lower windowsill to make the victim's extraction more secure or to break the windowsill completely.

Regular practical training is part of the annual routine of the Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department. All three crews have to take part in similar training exercises, including the extraction of the vehicle and live fire training in places such as the Manatee Technical College.