Crime & Safety

Firefighters Get New Training in Old Building

Before Quality Catering is razed, it gives Strongsville Fire Department a chance to practice their techniques

 

The former Quality Catering on Pearl Road at Whitney Road is slated to be demolished next week, but the vacant building was just what the Strongsville Fire Department needed for some intensive training.

The department spent all week on drills at the building, which is being torn down to make way for an as-yet-unnamed fast food restaurant.

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"The first part of the week we spent on hose line advance and attack, and then we moved on to search and rescue," Assistant Chief Jack Draves said.

Lt. AJ Aljabi said the training focused on new techniques on handling a 250-foot hose, including getting it around 90-degree corners.

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"We went back to the basics and reinforced what we first learned when we became firefighters," Aljabi said.

Strongsville firefighters also practiced Rapid Intervention Team skills -- called into play when a firefighter goes down because he is either trapped, injured or low on air.

Three-man teams went into a pitch-dark section of the building without flashlights or thermal imaging cameras, searching for their fallen colleague by crawling along the hose, figuring he would be near the nozzle.

Trainers made it tougher by snaking the hose around obstacles. After locating the injured firefighter -- actually a 200-pound dummy -- they had to deliver fresh oxygen, hook him up to a harness and drag him out -- all before their own oxygen supplies depleted in 20 minutes.

Training also included cutting holes into the roof, which ventilates a burning building and helps firefighters see inside a fire, Aljabi said.

All of the firefighters went through the same lessons.

"That way, everyone has the same training, no matter which shift they work," Aljabi said.


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