The Town of Colonie (TOC) Emergency Services wanted to test their fire response capabilities to a large high occupancy structure, namely Colonie High School. The challenge lay in finding smoke generators capable of producing smoke that was dense enough to create zero visibility conditions and realistic enough to simulate a structure fire. TOC Emergency Services Deputy Coordinator Gerald Paris, Jr. chose BullEx Smoke Generators for the exercise.

The BullEx generators are capable of rapidly filling large training areas with heavy training smoke in a short period of time. The smoke has a similar density and appearance of smoke generated from an actual fire and behaves as fire-generated smoke would while leaving little, if any residue.

At the high school, one Smoke Generator was set up in each wing of the building, while another was placed in the atrium. The purpose was to provide a realistic Large Area Search drill to focus on accountability challenges in a zero visibility environment as well as fire suppression techniques in a large space. “Three fires were simulated in the building with the use of traffic pylons and box lights, and three rescue dummies were placed for extrication purposes,” said Instructor Paris. The school has been the site of previous fires and the local responding departments wanted to obtain realistic training to familiarize them with the layout of the building and identify response challenges.

Approximately 30 firefighters from Fuller Road Fire Department and West Albany Fire Department assembled with their apparatus to await the call. Instructor Paris wanted to maintain the realistic integrity of the drill, and therefore did not provide a pre-exercise briefing to the responding officers or firefighters. As the call came out, Fuller Road Chief Kevin Terry arrived and began scene size up. As the firefighters arrived on scene, the smoke produced by the generators was already pushing through the front doors of the high school. The alarm was elevated to a structural fire, mutual aid was requested and the firefighters donned their SCBA’s. “The amount of smoke coming through the front doors threw the guys for a loop,” said Instructor Paris, “a massive amount of smoke was literally pouring through the doors. I don’t think anyone expected that kind of smoke volume.”

The responders were divided into search-and-rescue and fire suppression teams. Closely monitored by Instructors Gerald Paris, Jason Geary and Richard Haack, the search and rescue team moved down the corridors utilizing zero visibility search techniques. Instructor Paris said, “The smoke was already pretty thick in the atrium entry area. As the search team went deeper into the building, the smoke became so heavy that the Thermal Imaging Cameras had to be held directly up to the lens on their face pieces to see any readouts.”

The fire suppression team was experiencing identical difficulties advancing dry hose through the building. The training smoke was so dense that locating the simulated fires was becoming difficult. Two firefighters became separated from the team due to the intensity of the smoke, “The smoke conditions were so realistic, and just like it can happen in a real fire, they got disoriented and got lost. This is why we train. There is a need to learn what to do when you get separated, “said Instructor Paris. An unanticipated problem arose when the disoriented firefighters had difficulty transmitting through the trunked radio system from inside the structure. “A technical radio glitch like that can happen on a real fire call. This is why we train over and over about using pass alarms and calling for help when you’re lost,” said Paris, “The mistake made here was that the guys who were lost didn’t call a Mayday. I hope that they learned a critical lesson which may save their lives in a real fire. Better that they learn it on the training ground and not inside a real structure fire.”

At the end of the day, after the hoses were packed up and the evolution successfully completed, Instructor Paris talked about the realistic nature of the smoke produced by the BullEx Smoke Generators, “As the smoke generators began filling the structure, visibility was crystal clear up to around six feet, but above that level, it was pea soup.” He went on to add, “In a real structure fire, the smoke builds up in the ceiling area first, then “mushrooms” and begins layering down toward the floor as more smoke accumulates. The smoke from these machines did exactly that, and the density and quality were identical to structural fire smoke. That’s about as real as you can get your training ground without setting something on fire.”

Lessons learned? Expect the unexpected every time, recognize that mistakes may be made, have a fallback plan in the event of a mistake, and know when to call for help. Accountability matters on the fireground. Training firefighters in realistic conditions gives them the chance to make mistakes, the opportunity to learn from those mistakes, and allows them to sharpen their skills without risking their own lives or the lives of those they have been charged to protect.

Train Like You Fight.

BullEx Digital Safety Inc. is giving away five smoke generators to fire departments across North America.

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