00:02Firefighters risk their lives every day serving their communities.
00:06To hone their skills, they endure intense physical training
00:09so they can climb, chop, saw, and break their way through any obstacle.
00:14In an emergency, there's no margin for error.
00:17A quick, effective response can be the difference between life and death.
00:21Let's see what it takes to be a badass at firefighting.
00:30How physically grueling is being a firefighter?
00:34It has its moments.
00:35There's times that we'll go from, you know, zero to 100 pretty quickly depending on the type of call.
00:41All right, Allison, we're going to kind of run you through a typical academy workout
00:45that we run all of our new guys through, that all of us have been through.
00:49We're going to start off with the hose pull.
00:51I'm going to grab it and we're just going to start pulling it in.
00:53We're going to go ahead and pull in all 150 feet of it.
00:56Wow. Yep.
00:57Okay.
00:58As soon as we get this all pulled in, then we get to run it all back out.
01:02Go on, you've got to keep going.
01:03Almost there, almost there.
01:05There we go.
01:05Okay, that's it.
01:06Grab the coupling.
01:07Run it out.
01:08Keep working, keep working.
01:10Perfect, right there.
01:11That's it.
01:12Okay, so now we've got to grab this downpatient.
01:15Go ahead and get right underneath his arm.
01:16We're going to go up and around that cone.
01:20Okay, so now what we're going to do is we're going to simulate that we've got a high-rise fire.
01:23So we've got to run this up to the third floor.
01:24Oh, yeah.
01:25Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going.
01:27Head on the outside.
01:28Grab that rope and start bringing it up.
01:31Almost done, almost done.
01:32Here we go.
01:33Up.
01:33Perfect.
01:34Awesome.
01:37Now we're going to kind of move on.
01:39We've done our workout for the morning, so now we're going to get into our training.
01:41We're going to pack some extra weight on you today and have some fun.
01:44Awesome.
01:45All right, let's gear up.
01:47So like walk me through a typical day if there is such a thing.
01:51When we come to work, first we come to work for 48 hours straight.
01:53So we'll come to work for two days.
01:55Wow.
01:55You get to work, we make sure that our gear and our apparatus are squared away for the day.
01:59And then anything can get broken up with calls at that point.
02:03Now this is official.
02:04Now you are official.
02:06Okay, Allison.
02:07So one of the first bits of training we're going to kind of really get into today is auto
02:10extrication.
02:11One of the first things we have to do is we have to safe our vehicle and make access to
02:15our patient.
02:16We're going to do that by breaking the glass.
02:25So now we need to start making purchase points to allow our extrication tools room to
02:31access the nadir pin that we're going to be actually popping and we're going to try to
02:34pop this door off today.
02:35So I'm going to hold the tool here and you're going to come in with the flat head of the
02:39axe and you're going to strike against the back end of the halogen.
02:43All right, so the next tool we're going to use is we're going to use our hydraulic spreader.
02:47It uses hydraulic force to actually open the tips of this tool out so that we can create
02:53space.
02:53So right now we're just trying to increase the opening to get to the pin inside.
02:57Right.
02:57We're going to be able to pop the door off the lock and be able to actually open up
03:01the door.
03:07So for the next bit of our training today, what we're going to do is practice deploying
03:10a hose line.
03:11The way we're going to practice today is pulling out our quick attack.
03:14It's 150 feet of inch and three quarter hose and it'll put up about 150 gallons per minute.
03:23Okay, so what are we about to do with this chainsaw?
03:26All right, so right now we're going to use our chainsaw.
03:29We're going to simulate doing vertical ventilation.
03:31When we respond on a structure fire and there's smoke and heated gases inside the structure,
03:36in order to make it a more tenable environment, we send personnel to the roof to cut holes in
03:41the roof, punch out the ceiling so that we can help get that heat and smoke to rise vertically
03:46up and out of the structure.
03:55Right now we're sitting on top of our 2013 Pierce Aero XT 105 foot aerial ladder.
04:01The primary use for this is it's used for us to gain access to elevated points.
04:06Now any tips for me?
04:07Like should I be thinking about breathing?
04:09Is it opposite leg, opposite hand?
04:11Like what's the strategy?
04:12Yeah, climbing up definitely opposite hand, opposite foot.
04:15The biggest thing you got to do is just focus on the task at hand.
04:17The next thing you know you'll be 105 feet up in the air looking around.
04:26So I know more and more women are joining.
04:29Why do you think that is?
04:30We're trying to represent the community a little bit better.
04:32Part of that is getting more females to join the fire service.
04:36Really it's a pretty big push across the US.
04:38Do you think it's harder for a woman to be a firefighter?
04:41I don't think it's necessarily harder for a woman to be a firefighter.
04:44I think just the right female firefighter is one that's really physically fit, physically active,
04:48and it's the kind of never quit attitude that we're really looking for.
04:59Everything I experienced today was something I had never even dreamed of ever being able to do.
05:04It was so difficult.
05:06I can't even say enough how much physical and mental fortitude and strength it takes to be a firefighter.
05:12I feel grateful, I feel honored, and I have so much respect for these guys.
