Yesterday was Truck 12’s day to attend in-service training at the Enon Fire Training Center. Engine 9, Engine 17 and Medic 17 accompanied us. The day began with us in the classroom learning about the indicators of and some humbling statistics concerning an event known as “flashover.” Flashover is a condition where all of the contents of a room heat up to their flash point, and the entire room flashes over. A firefighter caught in a flashover has five seconds or less to evacuate the space without being seriously injured or possibly even killed.

Once the classroom portion was completed, we proceeded to the flashover simulator. This state-of-the-art training aid allows firefighters to see the buildup to a flashover, and then to see an actual flashover. The point of this training is to teach firefighters the indicators of a flashover, so we can either prevent one from occurring or evacuate the space before one occurs. The two ways that a flashover can be prevented is by cooling or properly ventilating the space.

via The days of training.