SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, PA – On Saturday, May 13, Schuylkill County firefighters gathered at the Schuylkill County Fire Training Grounds in West Mahanoy Township to participate in the final session of PA State Fire Academy “On the Road” Flashover Survival and Recognition.
The session began at 8 AM when firefighters from Pottsville, Port Carbon, Schuylkill Haven, Sheppton-Oneida, Orwigsburg and Mahanoy City gathered in one of the classrooms on the school grounds to listen to a two hour lecture about fire behavior and flashover. The class was led by Jim Misstishin and Greg Fabrizio Sr..
After the lecture, the class was split in two groups and were led to the “container” – a two level storage-like container where the fire would be led to flashover. The first group helped the instructors load the container with sheets of OSB and a barrel of cut up pallets.
The instructors went over some safety topics and crews geared up and donned their SCBA. The students sat in the lower level of the container and watched as the fire went through its stages and eventually flashed in the upper levels of the container.
Students were able to see the benefits of door control, ventilation and cooling the environment around them. Watching the fire grow and then die down into its container, students were able to put topics discussed in other classes into hands-on experience. The students rotated throughout the container and after multiple flashovers were able to extinguish the fire.
The students helped clean up the container and the next group began to load it up for their evolution.
The class went through four evolutions before finishing up for the day. The class then helped packed the container up as it was being picked up to head off to its next destination where more students will be able learn about flashover.
This class was the seventh and final class held at the Schuylkill County Fire Training Grounds.
