ATHOL — Anyone driving past the Athol fire station Saturday morning may have wondered why there was a large trailer ablaze in the parking lot. The trailer was a Mobile Live Fire Training Unit from the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy and it was parked there for a very important reason.
“It allows fire departments to have live fire training at their own station,” said Athol Fire Chief Joseph Guarnera. “We can use it to train fighting fires straight-on, downstairs, kitchen fires, bedroom fires. It’s great for working out hose-handling, fire suppression, communication – so there are a lot of things that we can do here that we need to deal with at an actual fire scene, but do it in a controlled situation, a training situation.”
Those taking part in Saturday’s training included all Athol firefighters, as well as a number of firefighters from the Phillipston Fire Department. In all, about two dozen firefighters took part in the simulation. The day’s activities got under way at around 9:30 a.m., with plans to continue “until around 1 or 1:30.”
“I’ve worked this prop with the Firefighting Academy many, many times,” said Guarnera. “It’s very taxing for the firefighters. They work very hard, so how long the training lasts depends on how they feel. Normally, we’ll work them as much as we can until you know they just can’t do much more.”
Once the training has concluded, Guarnera and representatives of the Fire Academy are charged with determining what went right and what went wrong.
“Once it’s over, we’ll offer a critique,” said the chief. “That’s the whole idea behind training. When you train, this is where you want to find out where your weaknesses are. You don’t want to find out where your weaknesses are at an actual call. So, through this, I let everyone know what I’m looking for, what I expect, what we’re going to work on. Firefighting is a contact sport – we need to work as a team. We need to hold onto each other, be close – it’s a very taxing thing. It’s a very taxing thing, but that’s our job.”
Accompanying the mobile live fire unit were two instructors from the Academy; Barre call firefighter Jason Messenger and Barry Fire Chief Robert Rogowski. The two men alternated donning gear and observing the Athol and Phillipston firefighters as they battled the simulated blazes in the trailer. The two then worked with the chief on the post-training assessment.
Gas for the fires is fed from a pair of propane cylinders. Both instructors have in their a possession a cut-off switch which extinguishes a fire in the event of an emergency.
While the training is generally safe, mishaps do sometimes happen. Three years ago, during live fire training in South Hadley, two firefighters were briefly hospitalized when an explosion occurred. A third firefighter received injuries that did not required hospitalization.
“This really is an invaluable tool for fire departments across the state,” said Messenger. “Unfortunately, come November, it won’t be making any more trips around the state. It’s going to be kept permanently at the academy. So, departments that want to do live fire training will have to travel to Stow.”