- December 21, 2024
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Fire calls aren’t frequent on Longboat Key. But if there is one, the Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department will be ready to respond to any fire.
That’s largely due to annual training sessions that keep the firefighter paramedics updated on how to work different types of fires. This year, the department’s focus has been on high-rise fires.
Although Longboat Key doesn’t have many true high rises like Sarasota, St. Petersburg or Tampa, several condominium complexes on the island have multiple floors.
Three crews of firefighter paramedics ran through hands-on high-rise fire training from Nov. 12 to Nov. 14 at the Longboat Harbour Condominiums. Training Captain John Elwood said getting the hands-on repetitions is useful to cement the crews’ training in their minds.
About two years ago, a small group from the Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department went to a High Rise Operation Conference (HROC) where they learned the latest techniques about operating on high-rise fires. After that conference, the group worked on how to take the material they learned and present it back to the rest of the Longboat Key team.
“This has been a long work in progress,” said Firefighter Paramedic David Oliger, one of the crew members who attended HROC.
Oliger and the others who attended the conference said they wanted the rest of the crews to learn that working through high-rise fires requires teamwork, efficiency, attention to detail and repetition.
All of that was demonstrated throughout the hands-on training.
First, the crews went through every step of how to set up for a high-rise fire. That’s where details and repetition are crucial.
When working a high-rise fire, the crews will typically work on the floor below the fire. Elwood said this is because fire and smoke generally move upward, so the floor below will be more clear and allow the crew to work in a smoke-free environment.
During windier times of the year, wind gusts can also cause a fire to lap over the sides of buildings and move to the floor above.
Buildings with multiple floors often have a standpipe, which is a system of hoses that connects through the floors to give firefighters a place to hook up hoses and use the water.
In this training, the Longboat Key crew also practiced how to attach hoses from their trucks up to the working floor. Here, the hose must be secured to a balcony railing or around something like the standpipe. Once the hose fills with water, it will become much heavier and could cause problems if not properly secured.
Teamwork and efficiency are important, especially for the Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department. In a best-case scenario, the department will have 10 crew members fully on duty.
“That’s why we rely so heavily on our neighboring agencies,” Elwood said.
Aside from additional assistance, the Longboat Key Fire Rescue crew will have eight people physically working on the fire. There will also be one battalion chief commanding from the ground and one crew member manning the fire truck.
It’s because of this crew size that Elwood stresses efficiency and teamwork.
That was clear as the team went through a scenario that involved a “fire” on the fourth floor.
The Longboat Key firefighter paramedics quickly got to work attaching a hose from the fire truck up to the third floor. In the scenario, the crew had to deal with unexpected obstacles like needing more hose and getting kinks out of the hose.
Hands-on repetitions are important when training for these types of scenarios. Elwood said that, since the crews run EMS calls daily, they get those repetitions very frequently. Once or twice a year, there may be formal training required for those more frequent calls as techniques are updated.
But for lower frequency calls, getting hands-on training like this helps the firefighter paramedics retain information that they don’t experience regularly.
“You need to train for high severity, low-frequency events,” Elwood said.
