OVFD Holds Fire Attack Training at Bergern County Fire Academy
 
By Photographer Frank Di Pentima
April 2, 2018
 

On Monday, April 2nd, members of the Oakland Volunteer Fire Department participated in fire attack training at the Bergen County Fire Academy (BCFA).

The purpose of the training was to not only provide our experienced volunteer firefighters with an opportunity to hone their attack and water application skills, it was also a chance for our younger firefighters to get experience in situations they may not have faced yet in the early part of their firefighting careers. It was also an opportunity to intermingle members from both fire companies into various teams so that our firefighters learn to work with many different members of the department as well as to forester stronger team concepts.

Training consisted of three parts: 1) first floor fire attack where smoke conditions were present, 2) second floor where smoke and fire conditions were present, and 3) incident command training.

In the first scenario – first floor attack – a large hallway with multiple rooms was filled with smoke and rotating teams trained on the proper way to enter the building, advance through the first floor with a fully charged hose and search for a fire source.

With the second scenario – second floor attack – fire was introduced into the equation and rotating teams took turns advancing through the building up to the second floor with a fully charged hose and then performed an attack of the fire until it was safely extinguished.

In both cases above, trainers from the BCFA watched the crews and then held debrief sessions with each crew after each rotation to present them with input on adjusting techniques to improve their attack performance.

The final part of the training involved a number of different officers taking the helm as the incident command keeping both crews going and tracking progress as each floors simulated fire conditions were being attacked.