The training was offered at the Rochester, Ill., Fire Department's headquarters by the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute and started with a classroom session. After the classroom work was over, the firefighters put their skills to the test on a specialized training prop. The prop used real propane, but had redundant safety backups and a watchful operator who could immediately turn off the gas if there was a problem.
Deputy Chief John Archer of the Rochester Fire Department said the training is useful because they never know when they might be called to the scene of a propane fire.
"There's a ton of bulk propane trucks on the highway," Archer said. "There's bulk tanks at almost every gas station anymore. There are also home grills. It's out there everywhere."
During the hands-on portion of the training, two teams, each with a fire hose, slowly approach the training tank as the flames shoot into the air. They use the water to push the flame away from a valve on the tank, and one of the firefighters steps forward and shuts off the valve and kills the flame.
Archer said the training allows them to practice more than just how to extinguish a propane fire.
"It's a training experience not for just learning to fight propane fires, but also for getting hose knowledge and working together and being able to perform a job together. ... It also gets you pump operator training because your pump operator (on the fire engine) is pumping water to you. They have to control the pressure."
About 30 to 50 firefighters were expected to attend the training. Archer said they invited firefighters from across the area to participate.
Mark Clapp, oil and gas program manager for the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute, said that in 2016 nearly 1,500 firefighters across Illinois went through the propane training class.
"Any firefighter in the state of Illinois can get the training, whether you're paid on-call, pure volunteer or fully paid," Clapp said.
– Contact John Reynolds: john.reynolds@sj-r.com, 788-1524, twitter.com/JohnReynoldsSJR.
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