Silhouette

Issue date: 9/26/02 Section: News

A fire science student scales the stairs into the Mobile Burn Trailer on Sept. 21. The trailer was set up on the parking lot located behind the Fine Arts building so students could experience the effects of an interior blaze.

Students taking fire science courses in the Criminal Justice Department experienced walking into a burning building Saturday morning.

Lt. Rick Collins, Garden City Fire Department, said the building was actually the University of Kansas Fire Service Training Mobile Burn Trailer.

Two at a time, the students entered the trailer on their hands and knees with a fire hose in order to see firsthand what a fire actually does.

"Students were sent in to extinguish the fire and to observe the fire patterns during the burn," Collins said. "This is for an aggressive interior room and contents attack."

According to Collins, ten students were present for the demonstration. Collins is an instructor in Team-T's Fire Science program.

According to Collins, wooden pallets and seltzer were used to keep the fire burning. The temperature in the trailer probably reached 1300 degrees.

"Seltzer is a shredded wood product produced for clean wood burning with minimal ash used for training," Collins said.

Collins said the main purpose of the simulation was to allow the students to experience the elements first hand.

"If this were the real deal, they're not going to get the time to look around and see what's going on around them, because once they get out in the field they have a job to do," Collins said.

According to Collins, that is not to say that safety did not take center stage when the students entered the trailer.

"Kirk Frizzell, from the Garden City Fire Department, and Dan Linton of the Holcomb Fire Department assisted me with the pumping, safety, and instructions," Collins said.

"This is real fire, this is not just a simulation. Everything is real-time and there are real dangers. [The students] know if they don't do everything right they'll suck in a lot of smoke," Collins added.

Elena Velev, Garden City, said her first experience in fire-fighting came when she got involved in a fire-fighting explorer group.

"What was going through my mind was 'Will I be able to do this in the future?'" she said.

Brandon Worf, Garden City, said that a friend got him interested in being a firefighter. He said it was very hot and difficult to see.

"When I went in, the fire actually rolled up along the roof to the back of the trailer behind us," Worf said.

Collins said he would like the Burn Trailer to return in either late March or early April.

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