FDNY Firefighter Tommy "T-Bone" Bohn talks about fire like it's a living thing.
Right now he's talking about the "Flash Over" simulator.
"So the flames, they'll be up near the ceiling, looking for air to breath, and something to eat."
Inside the simulator, Marines, Navy corpsmen, firefighters and instructors will sit and bear witness to the "flash over" phenomenon. A flash over occurs when all the oxygen in room is expended, while simultaneously the furniture in that room is heated to its "flash point."
"That's when everything in the room instantaneously combusts."
All at the same time?
"Yes, all at the same time."
Any way I could get in there with my camera (the living, breathing, bleeding and combustible part of me hopes he says no)?
"No."
Well, at least I'll be able to get photos of the other Fire-Rescue training.
Marines and sailors of the elite CBIRF, or Chemical Biological Incident Response Force, come to Randall's Island every year to cross train with the FDNY.
The Response Force is the only Marine Corps unit responsible for responding to chemical, biological, radiological attacks, including any sort of WMD's. The CBIRF mission breaks down into a few components—(chemical, biological, radiological) agent detection and identification; casualty search, rescue, and personnel decontamination; and emergency medical care and stabilization of contaminated personnel.
The unit, which has responded to crises ranging from the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, to the Anthrax scares, will often work hand in hand with local first responders. Though they may not actually fight fires as part of their mission, they'll often support those personnel in the field, making it mission expedient to know the ins and outs of a first responder's job.
Over the span of a week at the FDNY Training Facility in New York's Randall's Island, these Marines and corpsmen get first-hand comprehensive training in what it takes to be a part of the world's most elite group of firefighters.
Marines and Navy corpsmen who serve as disaster and WMD first responders spent a week on Randall's Island every year cross training with the FDNY.
The Chemical Biological Incident Response Force Marines wear color coded helmets. Red denotes extract teams, and they're made up mostly of former infantrymen. Blue is medical, the corpsmen. Black is Technical Rescue. Yellow is the Decontamination crew. And Teal is the Identification Detection Platoon.
The CBIRF unit was set up initially in response to serin gas attacks in Japan in the 90s.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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