Firefighters train in dorm before it gets demolished

It was as close to the real thing as they could get: smoke pouring from the windows of a college dormitory, a man lying on the floor inside, each firefighter carrying 100 pounds of gear up four floors to fight the fire.

For dozens of firefighters from Greeley, Evans and Eaton, this weekend at McCowen Hall on the University of Northern Colorado campus was an invaluable training session.

On Monday, contractors will begin demolishing the dormitory, to make room for new student housing. So, for the last two days before destruction, firefighters were able to practice in an almost-real situation.

Division Chief Jeff O'Dell of the Union Colony Fire/Rescue Authority was in charge of the two-day event, which continues today at the dormitory. He had high praise for the university officials who gave the firefighters the opportunity to train at the dormitory. We've never had the chance to practice in a dorm like this, using real smoke and water."

He said the drills show the need for firefighters to be physically fit: "Each man is carrying a hundred pounds of equipment into the building, and then carrying it up several floors. When they get to the top, they can drop about half of the equipment to fight the fire, but they have to rescue a 180-pound dummy and carry it down the stairs and to safety."

To make the practice seem more real, the firefighters used their portable radios to signal that a fire had started in the dorm, arrived in their fire trucks, then used a smoke machine to fill the floors.

All the firefighters wore the heavy bunker gear, air tanks and masks, carried axes and other equipment to use in fighting the training blaze.

Some carried a thermal image camera, others had sections if hose that needed to be hooked into the standpipe systems on each floor. No real fire was ever set in the building, but their was plenty of smoke to blind the firefighters.

In one scenario, the firefighters already inside the building were told over their radios that there was a victim in one of the rooms. They had to search all the rooms to find the rescue dummy dubbed "Rescue Randy," then carry him to safety.

From the time they received word of a victim somewhere on the fourth floor to the time they got him out was only five minutes.

After each training session, the firefighters met with trainers who watched how they reacted and critiqued them. Lt. Warren Arnsdorf was one of those watchers: "When we meet, the firefighters are a lot harder on themselves than we can be. They keep asking, 'What could I have done better?'"