Firefighter for a Day
photos by Mike McGuire
Captain John McInnis instructs civilian guests in fighting a building fire at the September 11 Fire Ops 101 event.
On the anniversary of the day some 343 firefighters lost their lives at New York’s World Trade Center, Alameda County’s firefighters showed the public and elected officials what they might face during a day doing their job.
Dozens of elected officials from around the county suited up last Wednesday, September 11, and carried out some of the challenges firefighters might face in a day, closely supervised by actual firefighters.
The firefighters and guests gathered at the Alameda County Fire Department’s training facility in San Leandro for Fire Ops 101, presented by the department and Firefighters Local 55.
The gathering was greeted by a color guard and an address from Alameda County Fire Chief Willie McDonald.
McDonald remembered the hundreds of firefighters, 70 police officers, and several thousand civilians who lost their lives on 9/11 and led those present in a moment of silence.
This was followed, though, by a 9/11-style tower climb. Guests and firefighters donned gear quickly, grabbed pre-positioned gear, and charged up smoke-stilled staircases of the Fire Department’s tower at the training facility.
“It’s hard work climbing lots of stairs with gear when it’s on fire all around you,” said Captain Francis Blay of Berkeley’s Station 19 as he helped San Leandro Mayor Gonzalez put on his gear for the tower climb.
“We’re trained extensively, but training can’t anticipate everything you actually encounter,” Blay said.
The tower climb was one of four rotations the guests carried out, as they took turns doing different kinds of tasks firefighters encounter.
The civilian guests also got to race into a fire, this time at ground level, carrying hoses, breathing apparatus, and other gear to extinguish the department’s Fire Trailer. Unlike in most real fires, the fire’s source was propane, which could be easily turned off safely if necessary.
Instructors said wildland fires are a hazard Alameda County has faced and could face again, even in places like San Leandro. One exercise involved digging trenches and fighting wildfires. Attendees also got to use the Jaws of Life to extricate realistic-looking injured victims, actually dummies, from a very realistic bad car crash.