Hard to tell the difference! I just spent my annual week of training (for work) at the South Carolina Fire Academy (SCFA) and let me tell you, it was hot as hell. The Academy has an electronic weather station to monitor the temps. as well as the humidity, and they also have in place a color coded flag system that basically dictates how long you can be in full turnout gear in the heat. It goes from green to black, with black being the worst. All week, except Friday, we were on black flag by lunch time. Imagine a heat index of 105 with about 60lbs of gear on, and fighting a fire. When we would detach our SCBA regulator from our face mask, sweat would poor out from the accumulation.
Luckily, we only had two days scheduled for fire fighting and one day each for Haz-Mat, Confined Space Rescue and Extrication.
This was the 2nd year my team (night shift) had been through the fire fighting class, however, the rest was new to us. The day shift group that was there had had it all before.
1 comment:
My extrication and haz-mat classes were both in the summer heat though not at the same time. It takes true dedication and determination and I admire you for it.
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