The Mobile Live Fire Training Unit from the Ontario Fire Marshal's Office had a workout in Magnetawan.
The unit was in the town for six days during which 75 volunteer firefighters from eight area municipalities carried out several scenarios to keep their firefighting skills sharp.
Five departments from the Almaguin Highlands made up of Burk's Falls, Sprucedale, Perry, Kearney and Magnetawan were joined by firefighters in the Parry Sound-area communities of Whitestone, McKellar and McDougall.
Magnetawan fire chief Derek Young says the unit is an invaluable piece of equipment because the small communities don't have many fires.
Young says the “unit helps maintain and increase their skills and gain new ones” so the firefighters are ready when a fire breaks out.
He adds the burn unit also helps firefighters to achieve their certifications.
The Fire Marshal's Office has two live fire mobile units, one for Southern Ontario and the other for the North.
They help train firefighters with live fires, search and rescue, fire suppression and hose management.
Young says while in Magnetawan the firefighters were put through several exercises including attacking a fire from the outside.
He says another exercise involved a quick exterior attack of the fire in order to get inside and then take on the flames from the interior.
Part of the burn unit has a second floor where the firefighters again put their attack as well as search and rescue techniques to the test.
Young says the normal procedure when using the second floor of the burn unit is to have firefighters first conduct a “primary search of the first floor and then a primary search of the second floor”.
“And depending on the scenario, they could also fight a fire on the first or second floor,” he said.
The burn unit is also constructed to allow for roof top exercises and forcible entries.
When carrying out a scenario, the chief training officer and respective fire chief will follow the firefighters as they engage with the burn unit.
“They watch and provide feedback,” Young said.
“If there's something they need to work on, it's addressed and they try again”.
Rob King is an instructor with the Ontario Fire College and he follows the burn unit to the various municipalities.
He says inside the 53 foot long trailer are steel props that are used to simulate different types of fires.
For example, one of the props is a steel stove that helps create a kitchen fire.
King says a living room fire is simulated using a steel couch.
On the second floor a steel chair simulates a third fire in another room.
King notes the firefighters contend with another simulation where a fire rolls above their heads “and that's a warning that something is going on”.
King says all the fires in the unit are real and run off propane which can be turned on and off.
“As the firefighters come in, we turn the (propane) fire onto low or high,” King said.
“They use their training and knowledge to suppress the fire and we turn the fire off. Then they can search the rest of the unit for other fires and or people”.
King says when the firefighters are attacking a fire, the instructor watches how they're putting water on the prop.
“If they're applying the water correctly, then we shut the fire off and that extinguishes the fire,” King said.
“If they're not using proper hose training or not adding enough water, then we leave the fire running until they put enough water on it or use the proper fire stream to put the fire out”.
King says the burn unit is also equipped with portable walls that can be set up according to the type of training a fire department wants its firefighters to run through.
“These are good for hose management when the firefighters are inside,” King said.
King also says the firefighters can carry out search and rescues using mannequins but the fire department supplies the mannequins.
Both burn units are well used across the province and King says they can be in a municipality from three to seven days.
Last September the Ontario Government announced it would be acquiring two more burn units.
Magnetawan fire chief Derek Young says this is the second time the Almaguin firefighters have used the burn units since they were created about two years ago.
Kearney was the recipient of one unit last year.
Young says fire departments have to apply to get a burn unit in their community.
He says in part, getting a unit is the luck of the draw, but a department can increase the odds of securing a unit if in its request it points out quite a few fire departments will use the training tool during its visit.