Rooftop Training

Photos and story by Hannah Falcon

A-Shift Crews from Spring Fire Stations 70 and 71 broke in the residential-rooftop training prop today, July 9. The prop at Station 71 simulates a house, much like the ones the firefighters see when on calls.

Using the prop for the first time, firefighters climbed to the roof and practiced the ventilation techniques they use during house fires.

“We’re simulating a training to vertically ventilate a residential structure,” Cadet Jordan Hendricks said. “We’re throwing a 24-foot ladder along with a roof ladder, going up and then practice cutting a hole.”

Ventilation is necessary during house fires to let out dangerous smoke and hot gases that build up inside. The smoke and gas can make it difficult for the firefighters to move around inside the house and find the source of the fire.

“Fire wants to go out, it wants to go from high pressure to low pressure,” Hendricks said. “When we cut the hole, it’s going to suck all that heat and smoke out and that’s going to make it better for the interior crews, the guys who are inside.”

This sort of ventilation requires synchronized timing and good communication between the firefighters on the inside and the firefighters on the roof.

“You have to do it at the right time otherwise; it can make it worse for them,” Hendricks said. “So, the guys who are on the roof have to coordinate with the guys who are on the inside.”

Hannah Falcon is a sophomore Communication major at Texas A&M University. A Staff Writer and Life & Arts Editor for the Texas A&M Battalion, Falcon is spending the summer as a volunteer writer for Spring Fire Community News.