Ear on Chicago; Firefighting

You're listening to a mustering in at the firefighting training unit recruit training command the Naval Training Center in Great Lakes Illinois and this is Hugh Hill speaking to tell you the story of firefighting instructions which are given to naval recruits. At the moment there is some mustering in ceremony going on here where a group of recruits are being mustered into position and in just a few minutes they'll be given some firefighting instructions. Now we have a chance to talk here very briefly to Warren Officer Albert L. Chapman who is the assistant director of firefighting training training unit here at the Naval Training Center at Great Lakes. Albert I'll be talking to you all the way through the program here but just briefly the boys have seen a movie and I saw it too of the burning and the ultimate rescue of the Franklin that aircraft carrier in World War II. I think it was in 1945 when it was here. 1944. 1944. They brought it back into New York City and actually got it back in the commission didn't they?

Right now it's in the mothball fleet but they extinguished all the fires aboard with firefighting equipment that you'll see used here today. Now that's the thing we want to get into. Now the boys have been brought from the movie and again may I compliment the Navy on that movie. It was a very fine one indeed. They've been brought out here in a group and mustered and now they're being filed off into different areas out here in the firefighting field. Off here to my right are a group of shacks which have been blackened by smoke and fire and then a group of tanks right in front of us. Far down at the other end I see a fuse lodge of an aircraft and there's some more tanks off to the left. Now I suppose that you try and simulate out here many of the experiences that they might possibly have a board ship at sea is that right? Well here we try to teach the recruit the basic principles of firefighting and to acquaint him with the firefighting equipment to use in the Navy how to use and how to maintain it. What are the boys going to do over there on those shacks? Those are structures simulating compartments aboard ship. The group of men you see on top of the second structure will be what we

refer to as an inside fire or compartment inside a board ship that is on fire and the only way the fire can be extinguished is by approaching it from a hatch on top of it. Is that place going to be set on fire? That's Shack? Yes that's Shack as you call it. We'll be on fire is oil and the inside in two compartments of that fire of that structure. It will be lighted ignited and allow to burn a little while and then the recruits after they've had their instructions by their instructor will go and extinguish that fire. What can we go over there right now? Anytime you're ready. All right let's move on over there now then. While we've come up on top of structure B now and in just a few moments they're going to give the instructions and start this fire. Albert what's going to happen up here? Well this instructor is Ripley machinist -made chief. He is on this topside fire he's instructing the recruits right now on what to do. How do the hose evolutions and how to approach this fire from this topside hatch? Well then why don't we just listen to the instructions? All right on top of this

structure as you'll see here we'll simulate a compartment fire on board ship to work and we cannot get down on the same level with the fire. Consequently we'll be combating the fire from the deck above. We'll fight first one end and then shifting from that end we'll shift end directly to the other side put out that fire. Here we'll be putting the fires out using a combination of high and low velocity water fog using the all -purpose nozzle producing or high velocity fog and our forefoot applicator producing low velocity fog. Okay that completes the instructions now what do they do here Albert just set it off down below. This compartment down below both ends is filled with oil. What we'll do here we pour gasoline on the oil and ignite it with our torch and once the fire reaches its velocity or builds up towards high enough that we think that we can give the recruit the instruction of the fire and he will move in with his fire parties and extinguish the fire. A

couple of boys over there filling up a bucket with is that gasoline? One can of gasoline and the other can is a torch pot. Those are the torch pot we light it off and that's where we keep our fire running all day long because what we do we eliminate fires one or after the other each group gets to put out every fire here. Well as you can probably hear the fire has been ignited and now they're ready to start fighting it so let's move in and listen to that instructor again. I have both fire parties up front of your face start sweeping move in slowly together. I love lasty in and under the cap it off cap it off. I have a lasty up and over. Redness in or low. Give your face back, rotate it now like high velocity,

hold your back out and hold the lasty. Rotate it wide back in your corners. All right, we've been back in its back corner wide lasty up your fire block. Watch your lighter also. You don't knock your bail in the closed position. We've been wide all four year longers. Watch your upright ladder so you'll not knock your bail in the off position. Well Albert walked in with the microphone toward the fire. I didn't go in because it got awfully dirty and awfully warm in there and smoke was pouring out of the other hatch over here. You were completely enveloped there a

little while ago. Did it choke you at all? No it isn't bad you get used to it here. What about that fog that he keeps talking about? Now I notice a fine spray is that water? Yes it's water. We fight all fires well fires with water. Well why don't you and I get off of here because it's going to get hot and a lot smoky. A lot smokier than it is now and we'll go downstairs. I can see another fog over here to our right fighting a fire and a tank. So why don't we go over there and talk about that one? Fine we'll go look at that one now. We have come over to now where they are going to have a tank fire and an instructor is just about ready to give some instructions to the boys on two lines here. Let's listen. Now man I told you before that we fight this tank fire with the applicators. Low velocity fog. The way we're going to do it is just like this. First when we move in I'll tell you stand by the man out under the applicator will swing around with a man at the nozzle. I'll tell you fog on. You'll turn your fog on and when we have our

fog blanket up we will move up toward the fire where they're fog up in front of us at a 45 degree angle. When I tell you you will lower down to the tank and we will sweep it wide and sweep the fire out. Well that's as much as the instructions it was listened to. We'll move out of here now. An Albert and I'll get over here where we can watch him. Albert are you going to go up in close to this one again? Yes or I'll go you right there with it. Are this tank is to represent or simulate an oil tank aboard ship with a top blown off and the contents have become ignited and the fire party is moving into extinguishing. What's again they're using fog what you call velocity fog yes on this fire. Now they aim this nozzle that they have here at a 45 degree angle. Yes that's the form an umbrella pattern over that cover the whole area of the fire. You see an oil fire cannot be extinguished with a solid stream of water because a solid stream of water would only stir up the oil and agitate it and cause the fire to burn more rapidly but by using this L11

fog head and all purpose nozzle it will bring it under control in a matter of a few seconds and extinguish it right away. Well you might be able to hear the snap of the fire because it started now go ahead Albert. Warm up there. Real warm I'm about two foot from this fire. All right now let's move up together. Even close together in our umbrella up 45. Move slowly now we never run toward a fire. Move your fog together and wide. Move right up. Move right up on it. Lower it down over the fire and start sweeping. Lower it down and sweep right and sweep. Sweep it out. Move that low.

Sweep it out over here. Fire party one you're not sweeping wide and not sweeping. You see if you don't sweep with your applicator your fire will not go out. Last man back up 45. Let's move back together now. That final signal that he called out there last man back I noticed the two last men on the lines here moved back what do they do just pull the lines back. Yes they're safety men to keep the men as they back out from this fire to keep them getting tangled up into fire hose and fall on and tripping. Well they've moved back the fire is completely out and the nozzles have been turned off I suppose now they move up two more men to give them the same experience. Yes sir everybody gets the turn at the nozzle and extinguishing the fire as they pass through this one day course at school here. But you and I walk over here a little way away from this fire

here Albert and I want to talk just briefly about some of the other things you have here before we move on to another demonstration. First of all when I briefly described the area I mentioned that you have a burned up fuselage of a plane over here. What do you do with that? The burned up fuselage is where we have demonstrations of gasoline fires where we simulate an airplane crash where the gas tanks of gasoline and the gas tanks have become ignited from the heat of the engines. We extinguish this fire with mechanical foam. It's a chemical foam solution as applied with water through a mechanical foam nozzle and as it passes through the aspirator cage of the nozzle it picks up air and forms a mechanical foam solution which is a blanket of foam that smothers the gasoline fire. Albert you were on the on the enterprise during World War II right? Yes sir I was on the enterprise and the war started. Did they have any real bad fires aboard the enterprise? During my time aboard during the war we had several bad

fires yes sir. Were you using fog at that time? At the beginning of the war we didn't have fog but right after the war started they found that there was a need for fire fighting in the Navy and the immediately the Navy went to work and designed this equipment today. You find now on all Navy ships. How often do you have visitors come out here? We have visitors quite often during this summer during the Great Lakes Homecoming we had visitors seven days a week. Do you show them pretty much what we have seen today? Yes they had everything that you've seen today. Everything that the recruit gets while they're here at school. Now one of the other things that we wanted to take a look at was actually one of the structures that you call them and the boys go inside and fight the fire from the inside. The instructor goes in with them? Yes sir the instructor goes in with them and there's always an instructor with everybody at the nozzle of every fire. All right why don't we move on down the line then? Where what building will they be going in down here? We'll go into the last hanger of the last structure which will be an inside fire.

We're not actually trying to make a finished firefighter here to hear it to school but we're trying to give the recruit to groundwork and fundamentals necessary to overcome his inherent fear of fire and develop confidence in the tools and appliances he uses. Now each one of these boys that is on that nozzle is a recruit he's the boy of 17 -18 years old who is in the Navy for what five six weeks? For a four year term if you're in a regular Navy. What are you doing up to this point? Up to this point area from the fifth to the seventh week of training. So this is what they call boot training in the Navy and this is part of the training. Yes sir that's right but it's certainly a very important part indeed and if anybody could ever have a chance of seeing the movie that I did which that carrier the Franklin was on fire from attacked by an enemy plane and see what those boys did on that ship you can well imagine how important this training and firefighting really is because by 1944 then I suppose you had a few schools going but by the time when the war started there weren't too many. Well when the war started there wasn't any but when

1942 in the first part of 1942 there was five schools already going. Yeah so maybe the boys aboard the Franklin had actually gone through those schools. I'm sure that's all of them had. Yes sir. They knew what to do when the fire happened but that was really a rough one. I know you've seen that movie. Have you ever seen anything that bad? Well no I was fortunate I never was in that bad a situation. You saw some rough ones though didn't you? A few yes. When the US has enterprise it got mighty hot and mighty rough a lot of times. Do you see the harness go down? Yes from a distance. And what did it look like? It looked like a loss of a beautiful lady and where there are a lot of men going overboard. I couldn't tell wasn't that closer. Oh I see. Well all right let's move on down here and take a look at this building that some of the boys are going to enter in just a few minutes and put out a fire from the inside. We have come down now to the structure where they're going to set it on fire in just a moment and have some of the boys the recruits go inside and put it

out. Albert I think you have first of all a few things you want to say after which you're going to take the mic and go in there with them. Right. Fire in this structure simulates fires that can be found aboard shipping various spaces such as hanger decks, compartments or passageways and store rooms where the decks have been covered with oil and the oil has become ignited. The fire fighters or their equipment cannot enter the compartment but must combat this fire from doorways or through hatches. The type of equipment used in this fire is the standard navy all purpose nozzle producing a high velocity fog. High velocity fog blankets the doorway keeping the fire inside the compartment enabling the fire fighters to move up to the doorway to get the nozzle inside where it is rotated in a circular motion until the fire is extinguished. All right is it about ready to touch it off in there now? Yes sir we're lighted off right now as soon as he gives the recruits their instructions on how to advance through the doorway. Al is inside of the building now and I'm standing outside of the building looking in and so I'm just going to listen as he talks to the instructor and as the instructor talks to the recruits. Well you all going into the instructor and he's going to give the recruits

their run down and what to do when they fight this fire. What does Carl have aviation boats and meters in structure handling this fire. All right that's this fire is to simulate a blow deck fire where you will come down below decks and attack the fire on its own level. Just previously you had one on top side where you bought it above this one here we're going to come right in alongside the building to pivot and come directly up to the drain and stand fast. When I give you the commands fall gone you return your fall gone deck and I'll give you another command directly after that up in front of your face. At the time I give you the command up in front of your face number one line which is group six will immediately cover this overhead. Here you'll see where the carbon has been knocked off to the overhead. That's where you are going to

sweep and I mean sweep. Number two line which is group one at that same time when I give the command up in front of your face will cover this hatch by going up and down on it. Remember now both lines will act simultaneously when I give the command up in front of your face. If one is behind the other the one sweeping the overhead if he hits it first we push the fire directly out in front of you. If the lad that has the nozzle that's covering the hatch by going up and down on it hits it before the one sweeping the overhead he's going to push the fire out over the top. So when I give you the command up in front of your face you will both hit it at the same time. Does everyone have that? Is there any questions? All right we have standby lines on the outside one on each side of the building. You will group up now I

want one through six from each group on the working line and seven through eleven on the standby lines from each group. All right let's move on now in just a minute they're going to start this fire the torch will be put in through the window here and it will be ignited and then you'll hear the instructor giving his instructions. All right block on that remember last stay low three through your nose. All right that's been in front of your face. Get it up there sweep that overhead cover that hatch. All right that's the boy all right move forward on the fire slowly cover that hatch that's the boy elevate number

two yeah lower number one back in front of the hatch then by the back out of the fire together slowly fire party running through back away from the fire slowly I bring the hatch didn't that over there that said back away slowly good job that's well hold it block on deck shut down well Al is finished in there and he's handed the mic out to me now and that pretty much tells the story of what's going on in there big black billowy clouds of smoke were pouring out of all of the windows and up above and those instructions you heard in there were given to the recruits were playing the fog over the opening and putting out that fire

well I think that's about as much time as we have to spend out here at the fire training unit at Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Great Lakes Illinois Al is back out here now Al thanks a million for going around with this I hope we didn't smoke you out too bad in there not bad in there it gets kind of hot and kind of smoky but you get used to it when you did a fine job for us going in there and holding the microphone up at the hatch of the other fire too and over there at the drum fire and also telling us about what was going on at the same time well we're glad to have you and we really appreciate it doing what we could for you well the navy certainly has a fine school and a group of fine men running it out here we want to thank you all for helping us in cooperating to put this program on the air now that we have seen the firefinding training unit we're going to talk just briefly to the man in charge that's Lieutenant junior grade Mark hurt Lieutenant your man here has done as a wonderful job warrant officer Chapman has gone through with us and shown us all of the things that the recruits go through out here and once again let me congratulate

the navy on a very fine training school indeed you fellas are to be congratulated well thank you very much I think Mr Chapman has a fine career in the navy a lot of experience of fire fighting behind him and when these recruits get out of recruit training they have a good grasp of the firefighting fundamentals that they'll need out there in the fleet thank you very much lieutenant and that's the story of the firefighting training unit at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station and this is Hugh Hill speaking