Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tom on January 2, 2009 at 10:26am

We also use a smoke machine at our department and the guys love it. I bought ours from as company in Hollywood Fl. and it cost around $300(unlike the ones made for the fire service that cost around$1500). The name of the company is Chauvet and the machine we use is the F1700 hurricane.

Permalink Reply by Derek Sukup on January 2, 2009 at 1:22pm

i agree, my department has one but barley puts it to good use. They make use wear a scba mask that is painted over and says this is the best way to practice search and rescue. but i find useing the smoke machine is more realistic beacause of how you can adjust the amout of smoke it puts out. You can get it dark enough if you turn off the lights in the room you are training. Glad to see somone else who thinks outside the box.

Permalink Reply by Joshua Stokes on January 4, 2009 at 4:46pm

My hometown department & my ship use The Battle Fogger. These smoke machine is the cats ass. It will smoke up an area in a matter of minutes. We used it one day to smoke up the upstairs of a church. We set it up and when back out side to get some things and before we know it we had smoke rolling out of the eves of the church. it looked as if the building was really of fire.

Attachments:

• battle fogger.jpg, 10 KB

Permalink Reply by David Martinez on January 6, 2009 at 12:02pm

We just got a machine receintly and have found that its great for TIC training. Views are limited as they are for scba, so the user must rely on touch and the thermal imager to make their way and or find the objective. We use are station and by rearrainging a little funiture or making "walls" with our folding tables we can make a maze in 5-10 minutes that really provides a challange.

Our first training was no smoke with the tic to show what things would look like, we let them view room, objects bodies, etc to get the association of what they saw in the screen. Next time we added smoke. Next time we put them in gear and SCBA but not on air, (work on keeping to wall and feel and on communications through last two). Next time we went all out on air. Then we started adding tricks like turning the TIC off midway through to simulate dead battery,

The last event is a trip through the burn building to find "randy" in real fire conditions.

Permalink Reply by Charles Lawrence on January 6, 2009 at 11:48pm

They are great. We bought two of the cheaper ones mainly used for Halloween and such. They do a good job and we have to call the alarm company ahead of time because it sets off the fire alarm.

Permalink Reply by lutan1 on February 3, 2009 at 10:44pm

One downside of the cheper units, depending on the product used, is the residue that is often left behind. All surfaces can often be left with a wet, slippery coating....

I haven't seen them in action, but has anyone else seen these? http://www.trainingsmoke.com.aa

Permalink Reply by Rob on February 14, 2009 at 3:10am

I love the one we have. Still working on just how long to run it before we start to get good coverage in the training room. It does leave a slight residue, but it is not too bad. Mostly in the area within a few feet of the machine. We just toss a floor mat down and sit the machine on the table. Most of the residue falls out on to the mat.

Permalink Reply by Lars Andersen on March 31, 2009 at 2:39am

When we use smoke machines we do not always cover everything in smoke. We are more likely to use them as a marking in a building or in the cabin on a plane. I have learned that very small amounts of a known substance can have a dramatic effect in drills. We also use very small amounts of vinegar, almond oil, propane, petrol, chlor or ammonia.
The smell is significant but harmless. The appearance of the smells will force the leading fire-fighters to act the way we want to se according to our standard HAZMAT-procedures.

Permalink Reply by Chief 29 on March 31, 2009 at 4:52pm

Our zone Which consist of several local companies has one and it is available to any company in the zone for the small price of the smoke liquid. We use it on a regular basis and I find it to be better than covered face shields.

Permalink Reply by josh on April 7, 2009 at 1:00pm

we use smoke inserts and a fog machine the only downside to the fog is it leaves a residue behind

Permalink Reply by Craig Wade on April 29, 2009 at 4:38pm

We also use a fog machine. It's one of the cheap-o Wal-Mart Halloween models however it gets the point across and as long as the room is sealed up somewhat we have no issue with it working. It does leave some residue in front of the machine and on the walls, however when using our training groups battle fogger the same issues were faced.
Another good idea is to use it during fire prevention in the schools. We bring a small group of students into a room that's only slightly smokey to do a presentation, 10 mins later after the presentation's done the students realize that they can't see doors or walls when they stand up. It really drives home the point of STAY LOW

Permalink Reply by Padre Pete on May 24, 2009 at 12:56pm

There are a couple of shots of our Battle Fogger and its effectiveness included on my profile page. It fills our burn building (also in photos ) faster than the old smoldering hay bale. Works great for us.