I am new to our training division and I would like to get some different types of props. Does anyone have any tried and true setups? Some tips and pics on the construction would be great too. Thanks.
Don't have any pictures but here are a couple;
1) Build a life size corner of a room using 3 sheets of plywood ( 2 walls & 1/2 of one for the floor), carpet, paint, cheap picture, maybe an application. Then create a spill pattern for Fire Investigation.
2) Contact a local contractor for a 5-8' section of rubberized culvert. Using the culvert and other wood props setup a reusable, movable restricted access SCBA course.
Props don't need to be expensive or extravegant. We had some very good training recently using a bunch of our folding tables to create room in our training area. He had hallways and bedrooms set up. Placed some chairs and other misc items along to way to stumble over. We could easily move the tables after every search. Two guys would try to hook the scba's with conduit & wire as they passed by.
As Dottie said, check with local businesses. I own a furniture store and collect alot of furniture that people want us to dispose of for them. We have used all kinds of furniture for search & rescue or fire demonstrations over the years.
Culvert pipes with holes drilled in them and wires strung through them work well...Make a free standing "window frame" and practice egress.(put an old mattress outside to prevent injuries) Use your meeting room (or any other) darken all the windows and form 2 person teams and search using the thermal imaging camers...put the "victim" under or behind obstacles...find him and carry him out...Stay safe....Paul
Some great ideas, we have even used the local playground, by running a rope around and under the different obstacles, and then have our members put a coffee filter in their SCBA masks and follow the rope through the maze.
Jeff, We have a free standing frame of four 2x4s w/ cross section "feet" braced at an angle. 4 feet high and wide enough to provide a gap 18" on center. Yours could be wider to accommodate more than one 18" gap. Nail drywall to both sides. Place it anywhere it could be used to add realism. Have trainees mask-up, breach the walls and crawl trough. Extra demension is added by running household wiring between the walls through the holes drilled through the middle of the 2x4s. Yes!! You do have to replace a bunch of drywall but you can probably get some kind of good local deal on it. Works for us. We dont have to find a junk house every time we need to demo breaching. Also: Commit an old rope to training. The next one you are "requied" to take out of service gets chop it into six foot lengths for use for knot tying classes. Yours is a great mission. Keep it up.
here are a few easy ones to do.
The Denver Drill, the prop is easily assembled for under 300 dollars and if you use lag bolts instead of screws it lasts longer and can be taken apart for storage.
The Nance Drill - Through the floor drill, we have done this drill using the hole for the fire pole, if you have one.
Calling the Mayday. Have your members don their gear and scba just as they would if they were going into a house fire. Have the member begin crawling on the floor and use a sheet or a piece of snow fence to pin the firefighter to the floor to simulate a collapse and have the FF actually call a mayday over the radio. This works really well if you have a tac channel. Have the IC answer the mayday and give the orders for activation of the RIT. Practice make perfect.
Another good drill we do is to stretch 200 feet of 1 3/4" line through out the engine bay having it cross itself several times. Put two firefighters at the nozzle with full PPE and SCBA. Use wax paper inside the face pieces to simulate the smoke and then have someone give the emergency evacuation order. See how long it takes your crew to exit the building following the hose. by crossing the hose it give the FF's a chance to feel the coupling and determine which way is out. We eventually just cut a male and female coupling with about 2 ft of hose on either side and put them together,had the members close their eyes and feel the coupling and tell us which way is out.
I have a million more if you need them just ask or email me fireguy737@yahoo.com
Jeff check the vententersearch site found some very useful and inexpensive props there. Might try checking with Home Depot they may be able to help with the materials too.