Texas Smoker (attn: TXDon)

[wroughtn_harv]

The Wylie FD asked me to help them out with a project. Back in the day when they were mostly volunteers that was nothing but a thing. They would ask and I would deliver. But things change, we now have three fire stations and tons of firemen and lots of equipment. The Wylie FD has won state awards many times.

They have a training center. And in this training center is a smoke house where they can train working in smoke. It works great but there is this new method of fire fighting where they place a wind generator, think of one of those fans they use to air up hot air balloons, at the front door. Then they break out windows in the back of the unit and the smoke is evacuated and it is a lot easier to fight the fire. It supposedly is a new technique and the Wylie FD wanted to have a training aid.

So they had three windows cut into the smoke house. And engineer laid out and stamped the window framing and left everything else to the firemen and me. The only hiccup is the city now has layers to go through but luckily we met the qualifications, $2,000,000.00 general liability for one.

What they have have is one 4' X 4' window on the east side, one 3' X 6' and one 4' X 4' on the west side. What they wanted was steel window that could be blocked off for regular smoke training. And they wanted the 4' windows to have four separate doors that could be opened individually. The six foot window needed six individual openings. Oh, and they wanted all of the window to be opened from the inside in an emergency.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

There were some interesting considerations. For instance the emergency latch had to be easily found and operated while wearing heavy gloves. The individual panes also had to be easily operated while wearing gloves but from the outside by instructors.

So as I understand it the two rooms will be filled with smoke. The instructors will be able to demonstrate the effects of one to fourteen windows being opened for venting the fire after the fan has been started. And it will still be a viable smoke room.

I used readily available components when possible. Boys will be boys and stuff will happen. I probably won't be around to fix it in fifteen years or so.

 

[forgeblast]

Wow nice solution Harv!

 

[txdon]

Very nice Harvey!
It looks like the trainers will have as much control of the fire and smoke in the smoke house as they do on their BBQ pits.

Using Smoke ejectors for positive pressure has been around for a while but many smaller Volunteer fire departments do not usually have them or positive pressure fans. It requires an on board generator, fans, and sufficient crew - Ours does not. The environment and visibility is so much better fighting the fire with positive pressure If the opening (window or hole in roof) is coordinated by two crews. If done right it also eliminates the possibility of a back draft and gives any survivors on the floor a bit of relief. The hose crews have to have the water ready when the the heat and smoke are replaced with the influx of oxygen but with training it works great.

It is a lot more work than standing in the front yard and shooting water and your VFD is training like the pros, you should be proud of them.

 

[dave1949]

From the title I thought TXDon was going to smoke some zucchini. :laughing:

Very nice work and I'm sure a good training facility that will help prevent injuries.

 

[zing]

Very nice Harvey!
It looks like the trainers will have as much control of the fire and smoke in the smoke house as they do on their BBQ pits.

Using Smoke ejectors for positive pressure has been around for a while but many smaller Volunteer fire departments do not usually have them or positive pressure fans. It requires an on board generator, fans, and sufficient crew - Ours does not. The environment and visibility is so much better fighting the fire with positive pressure If the opening (window or hole in roof) is coordinated by two crews. If done right it also eliminates the possibility of a back draft and gives any survivors on the floor a bit of relief. The hose crews have to have the water ready when the the heat and smoke are replaced with the influx of oxygen but with training it works great.

It is a lot more work than standing in the front yard and shooting water and your VFD is training like the pros, you should be proud of them.

My brother is a full time firefighter. It is common practice for them to ventilate a house by standing just inside of a door or window with the hose pointing outside. Then adjust the hose to a wide fog pattern so it fills the door, and then open it up. As the water shoots out it will carry the smoke with it and clear the air in the room quite quickly.

One day he was in exactly that situation, trying to ventilate so his team inside the house could conduct a search, but when he was about to open the nozzle he noticed 6-7 cops standing there 20 feet from the door filming with their phones. He tried to wave them out of the way a couple times but they were paying too much attention to their phones to notice so eventually he had to open it up anyway. As soon as he opened the nozzle he lost vision of what happened because of the water and smoke, but the guy working the pumper truck told him later that the sight of those cops all diving out of the way was the funniest thing he had seen in years.

 

[dmccarty]

Shoot! I thought this was going to be about a smoke house for hanging meat! :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

I guess the VFD could still used the Smoke House for training but they could also use it to smoke a bunch of hams that they could then sell to raise funds! :thumbsup:

Later,
Dan

 

[2LaneCruzer]

]Shoot! I thought this was going to be about a smoke house for hanging meat! :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

I guess the VFD could still used the Smoke House for training but they could also use it to smoke a bunch of hams that they could then sell to raise funds! :thumbsup:

Later,
Dan[/QUOTE]

Me too. I was ready to trot out my favorite recipes! That's ok, though, both of my brothers retired from firefighting; one in Oklahoma City, one in Albuquerque.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Don one of the reasons the guys are so excited about this is the small departments in the area now have no local place to train with this procedure. There is a huge demand for it I guess. Plus the fees involved help the Wylie FD with their budgets and some of the firemen will pick up overtime as instructors.

It's kind of kewel being part of something that can effect so many lives.