Take a look inside Olympia Fire’s training week in old buildings on the Capitol Campus
About eight Olympia Firefighters filed into an empty room of the Newhouse Building on Feb. 22. Dressed head to toe in full gear, their goal was to get out of the room without using any doors or windows, or their eyes.
Ten minutes later all but one had gotten through to a room deemed safe by Battalion Chief of Training J.D. Young. One firefighter, who was set to be the first to exit the room successfully, sprained his wrist on an electrical conduit inside the wall and had to bow out early.
The exercise was one of many that staff with the Olympia Fire Department have been doing on the Capitol Campus since Feb. 16. Assistant Chief Kevin Bossard said it was a rare opportunity for their nearly 90 staff members to train outside of their usual facility and partner with the state Department of Enterprise Services — a partnership they plan to maintain.
The Newhouse Building, built in 1934, and the adjacent Press Houses are set to be demolished to make way for more modern buildings for legislative staff. It’s all part of a modernization effort by the state which will lead to more energy efficient buildings and resources.
Ginny Streeter, with DES, said there are more campus buildings set for renovations, so it’s possible OFD will soon get to train on the campus again.
Bossard said he can’t recall the last time OFD got to train in a building outside their usual facility. It’s been nearly 20 years since the most recent major training by the department, where they worked a controlled structure fire. Bossard said using the Capitol Campus buildings gives their staff a rare opportunity to work in a more realistic environment. Back at their training center, they have ways to simulate what it would be like to break through a wall to exit, but it’s nowhere near the same, he said.
Bossard said working in the larger space allowed firefighters to work on their communication skills and how to support personnel through a mayday call. Those are life or death moments, when Bossard said staff has to manage civilians as well as their coworkers who may be having a hard time navigating the stressful situation.
“These training sessions are the best way to measure and manage those things before they become problems in the future,” he said.
After the wall breach, the crew were instructed to go upstairs where a fog machine had been filling the room with smoke for 10 minutes. Inside were two fake bodies for them to rescue using orienteering skills and understanding the shape of the room they were navigating. They also had thermal imaging cameras to help identify people.
It took less than 45 seconds before half the crew had found the first fake body and carried it to a safe place. The crew was debriefed after the training, and several of them agreed it was a realistic experience, having benefited from using a real space and not their training center.
“Training like this helps condition our firefighters to think clearly, act calmly, and actively troubleshoot while safely and effectively performing rescues,” Young said. “That muscle memory and clear decision-making ability are important in the heat of the moment when every second counts.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
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