New facility goes up in flames

October 21, 2005

MARY AMES\Frontiersman reporter

BIG LAKE - A simple three-story metal-clad building on West Lakes Road is a dream come true for Bill Gamble, district chief for the Big Lake and Meadow Lakes Fire Service Area.

For a year and a half, Gamble has worked at bringing the project to fruition, and Wednesday, the second training facility for firefighters in Mat-Su had its first burn.

&#8220From Sunshine to Sutton, firefighters have a new level of training,” Gamble said. &#8220We're ecstatic.”

For about five years, one training facility on Knik-Goose Bay Road, at Station 62, was the only live-fire training building available. The new building is similar, but different, according to Gamble.

&#8220Between the two we have incredible live-fire training,” he said. &#8220We invited all Mat-Su firefighters to brainstorm about it.”

WRG Fire Training Simulation Systems Inc, an Oregon company that has built about 67 training facilities all over the world, put up the new building at Big Lake. Bill Gee, company owner and retired Portland firefighter, came to the Valley for the initial training exercises this week.

&#8220We burn Class A materials in there - plywood, paper and cardboard - to make fire scenes,” Gee said.

Gee said they can't put other things firefighters might come across in a real fire, such as furniture, inside the building because of risk-management issues. But the heat and the smoke are real.

A crew of about 15 from Meadow Lakes and Big Lake practiced scenarios and communications together all day Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Wednesday afternoon, the crew had its first live-fire drills.

&#8220Without actual fire, firefighters don't really know what it's like,” Gamble said. &#8220The adrenaline comes on and you're not prepared for it as well if you haven't been in a situation.”

The first crew, including Gee, went into the building with a fire on the first floor for the first scenario. They stayed in radio contact with Gamble, Rocky Jones, chief of Meadow Lakes FSA, and a crew outside with fire hoses. While knocking down the fire with hoses inside, crew leaders read the

temperatures on the walls. They climbed the stairs to the second story before extinguishing the fire fully and leaving the building to discuss how it went. Outside in the sharp wind, they savored long pulls on their water bottles.

Some temperature readings inside had gone up to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Gee reminded trainees that a firefighter in wet clothes going into temperatures that hot would get steam burned.

&#8220And it's hotter than the readings, in some cases,” he said. &#8220There is a delay in the thermocouple signals. And the temperature rises slowly to about 500 degrees, then it jumps about 150 degrees every five to 10 seconds.”

The Mat-Su responders get paid to train and respond to emergencies, but they all have real jobs to keep them afloat.

&#8220I'm an air-traffic controller in Anchorage,” Gamble said. &#8220You have Slope workers, plumbers, electricians, you name it. They give their time to make people safer. This new facility will make our firefighters safer and more efficient.”

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.