By Jack Maher, Multimedia Journalist, and Devan Crean, Marketing & Communications Specialist, Jeffco Public Schools
The Fairmount Fire Department fire tower looms where Warren Tech fire science students practice the art of first response.
If you’re going to make it in Warren Tech’s fire science program, you have to be okay with smoke, fire, and lots of intense physical activity. It’s just part of the drill for anyone hoping to make a career out of first response. That’s why these students are often found in the gym.
“At Warren Tech, we have our own gym. So ,we work out two times a week, for the a.m. class three times a week. We do weightlifting, we do cardio, sometimes we’ll go play team sports and do it as a class,” explained Arvada West High School/Warren Tech senior Jordan Staily.
These students also earn college credits and homeschool credits for their physical education in class.
“It’s not all about lifting weights all the time. There’s a lot of cardio components involved. Being really strong doesn’t necessarily help, but you need to be able to work hard for long distance. We kind of balance it out,” said Warren Tech Fire Science instructor Matt Beckett.
The workouts are a nice contrast to the drills and the challenging coursework, which includes scenario run-throughs and anatomy.
Every other week, all year long, the class shifts, to the Warren Tech fire science version, of the Tower of Terror.
“Fairmount Fire Protection District allows us to use their training tower. It’s a five story burn building. There, we’re able to do things that we can’t do in the bay,” said Beckett. “It has a two-story residential structure, has burn rooms, search and rescue areas, we can repel off the five story portion of the building. It frees us up to actually train these guys like they actually would in an academy or fire ground.”
They made sure Multimedia Specialist Jack Maher was properly equipped too, as he attached a GoPro camera on one of the students for a first-person look at the day’s lesson in proper search and rescue. To be successful, you have to be okay with heights, small dark spaces, and tight oxygen masks.
“I’ve had issues with students who had claustrophobia, and they put on a mask, and they didn’t realize they were claustrophobic until they were put in that situation. It’s better to find out here, then paying thousands of dollars at an institute to realize it’s not cut out for you,” said Beckett.
Working together as a team and good communication are integral parts of this training, as well.
“It’s a lot of communication, because it’s dark and it’s smoky. You can’t see or wave at people in there. You can barely see your own hand in front of your own face,” explained Arvada West High School/Warren Tech junior Amber Branch.
The challenge for these students, and real firefighters, is balancing communication and safety.
“It’s kind of hard to communicate with classmates when you’re on air, because you do want to save your air, but we try to get as much out in as little words as possible and we use either right hand or left hand searches, so you just go around the sides of the wall and you have to stay on that wall until you get back to point one where you started at so you search the entire room for victims,” said Staily.
At the same time, other fire science students worked on setting up a second exit, which is standard practice in the firefighting world if something goes wrong.
“I’m a big proponent of self-rescue. Any time where you’re in a situation where you’re lost or disoriented or fire behavior is increasing rapidly, you definitely need to be able to take care of yourself, so that’s one of the things I want to be able to instill in these students right off the bat,” said Beckett.
That’s where the emergency bailout comes in. Beckett makes sure to hook in safety belays as he guides students to an open window in the training tower.
“It’s called a hook two, grab four and so they’ll go out the window head first, hook the second rung of the ladder, grab the fourth rung, and actually swing themselves around and onto a ladder to get out of a room quickly,” explained Beckett. “The nice thing about it, is that it keeps them low and out of the heat and it’s also a very fast way to get out of a building and safe at the same time.”
The fire science course is tough, and it’s certainly not for everyone.
“You need to be dedicated. Come here and work. If you have the dedication and motivation to push yourself, this is a great class for you. He pushes us, he definitely does, but you also have to be able to push yourself,” said Staily.
The hard work will eventually payoff, though.
“Being able to know that you made a difference in someone’s life is unreal,” said Golden High School/Warren Tech senior T.J. Chrysler.
Watch the JPS-TV version of this story here.