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Extinguish the Flames

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There is no warning before the fires start. No countdown, no buzzer, no flashing siren, just the deafening, unmistakable roar of the monster blaze.

In an instant, the entire building is ablaze and two-dozen men, as though compelled by some primordial force, fearlessly race into the inferno. Bracing against the force of their hoses and the blistering heat ahead, their adrenalin pushes them forward into the blaze.

"Come to see what the heroes do?" A firefighter, running toward the flames, shouts as I fumble with my respirator and oxygen mask.

At the University of Nevada, Reno Fire Science Academy, firefighters come from across the country and around the globe to learn how to effectively and safely fight one of the most destructive forces in nature. In the seven years since it was built in Carlin, Nev., the
academy has gained acclaim as one of the most advanced, comprehensive fire training facilities in the world.

The academy offers nearly 50 emergency training courses ranging from mine and rope rescue to hazardous material containment and a special six-hour weapons of mass destruction course.

During the week of Oct. 16, more than 40 firefighters from around the country took an FSA course in advanced exterior industrial firefighting, a course designed to teach about the possible challenges faced in oil or other petroleum fuel refineries. With the aid of a three-story oil refinery replica, state-of-the-art classrooms and fire science experts, they spent four days learning and practicing the techniques of fighting some of the most unpredictable and dangerous fires they might encounter.

Tyler Bones, a 31-year-old emergency response supervisor from the Flint Hills Oil
Refinery in North Pole, Ala., and other firefighters agree that the highlights of any FSA course are the hands-on burns.

In addition to the aforementioned refinery replica, the academy employs the aid of other full-scale props including a storage tank, an oil field production pump, an extensive network of underground tunnels and a mock aircraft. The 21 props at the academy can be used alone or together to recreate an almost endless array of possible emergency scenarios.

The FSA employs a special diesel and hexane fuel mixture to make their training
simulations as real as possible. Randy Squires, the assistant director of the FSA, says that the academy is licensed to burn up to 12,000 gallons of the special fuel per day, anytime
between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m.

All of that fuel, once lit, translates into a suffocating, acrid smell of burnt diesel that clings not only to hair and clothes, but skin as well. The thick, black smoke the fuel produces - though, according to Squires, environmentally safe when compared to the smoke of other types of fuels - leaves a dark trail in the sky, visible for miles, and leaves on-lookers and their cameras covered with greasy, little black dots.

Fires on the refinery replica necessitate the aid of thousands of gallons of water to
extinguish. All of that water meets the fire via high-pressure fire hoses, up to three at any given time, and water cannons so powerful that their streams can reach the fire from over 100 feet away. Firefighters in the structure have to compete not only with the blaze, but also with the torrential downfall of water from other hose teams and the high-powered water cannons.

Surprisingly, the main use of the water is not to actually to extinguish the flames, but to suppress them. Hose teams battle flames back to allow access to valves, the only way to stop the flow of fuel and thereby, the fire itself. The water also helps to cool the valves, which can glow red-hot in the 1,300-degree heat of the fire. If the hose teams do not properly suppress the flames, they run the risk of the fire flashing back while they attempt to close the valves. Although serious injuries resulting from such a flashback are rare in the controlled environment of the academy, the hot burst of flame is enough to raze even seasoned veterans like Tyler Bones, who has been fighting fires for 14 years.

After starting as a volunteer for a municipal fire department in Oregon, Bones went to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks to pursue a degree in fire science and emergency response. While at school, Bones got an internship at the Flint Hills Oil Refinery and has worked there ever since. He leads a 38-member emergency response team at the refinery.

Bones said the refinery has been sending emergency response team members to the academy since the 1980s.

"We gain so much by sending our guys out here," Bones said. "It's as close as you can get to a real-world situation."

The Alaska refinery sends 13 people to Carlin, Nev. to take courses at the academy each year.

Most of the academy's courses, including the advanced exterior industrial firefighting course, have hands-on training.

Unlike the academy's other courses, though, the advanced exterior industrial course features night burns. It is harder to see obstacles and other firefighters at night and the bright flames make it impossible for the firefighters' vision to properly adjust. The juxtaposition of the vibrant orange heat of the fires against the cold darkness of the Northern Nevada desert blurs the line between training fire and real-life, uncontrolled blaze.

Aside from the darkness, firefighters at the academy are also hindered by time. Fires consume oxygen in the air, making it necessary for the firefighters to wear oxygen tanks.

Even experienced firefighters like Bones can only get slightly over 40 minutes of air out of a single tank, and at 35 pounds and roughly the size of a full backpack, the tanks can be burdensome. Though larger tanks would give the firefighters more time, they would also weigh them down more, making their task even harder. If firefighters waste any time at a fire, even a training fire, they run the risk of running out of oxygen. And if even a handful of firefighters have to leave their hose teams to change tanks, all their progress suppressing a fire can be for naught.

Even though at the end of the day, the fires at the academy can be put out by turning off their fuel source, nothing about the training is spurious.

Everything that the firefighters learn at the academy is designed to help them successfully fight real fires because even the heroes need some instruction once in a while.

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