Alabama's STEM explorers is made possible by the generous support of the Holle Family Foundation established to honor the legacy of Brigadier General Everett Holle and his parents, Evelyn and Fred.

Holle, Champions of servant leadership, science, technology, engineering, math, all coming up right now on Alabama STEM Explorers.

Hi, welcome to Alabama STEM Explorers.

I'm Mitch, and I'm here today at the Alabama Fire College with my new friend, Chief Willis.

So what are we going to be talking about today?

Well, today we'll talk about what it takes to be a firefighter and what is involved in the education of a firefighter.

We're talking about STEM, correct?

Yes.

And in the fire service, we use math, we use engineering.

We use chemistry in our everyday life as a firefighter.

And we teach a lot of that here in a recruit school here at the Alabama Fire College.

That's crazy.

So what kind of stuff do you do here?

Well, as far as for a firefighter, there, they take ten weeks to go through a recruit school.

And during that ten weeks, they're taught fire behavior, chemistry, hazardous materials, structure, building, construction, different things that they need to know to be able to fight a fire.

Okay.

So tell me more about some of that kind of stuff.

Today's fires produce a lot of chemicals that are detrimental to the firefighter and to the occupants of a house.

Yeah.

Cyanide and such.

And we have to know how those are Chemicals affect the firefighters over time.

We teach math as simple as pumping water or at a fire.

You have to know math to be able to do to decide how hard to operate the pump to get the GPMs are the gallons per minute at the end of the nozzle.

So as things this friction loss and nozzle reaction, things like that.

Yeah.

So in like the more technology, what kind of stuff are you doing in that field?

Well, the fire services taking out technology wise is changing every day.

What a firefighter use to fight fire 40 years ago is different than what firefighters use today.

As far as the the self-contained breathing apparatus, thermal imaging cameras.

When I started in the fire service, 30 some odd years ago, that was a dream to have a camera that you could go in and find victims in a hot environment.

Now, most just about every firefighter will have one when they go into a fire.

And that's we teach those type of things.

How to use the, as we call them, thermal imaging cameras to advance through a burning building.

That's that's insane.

And what about the last one?

The engineering part?

Engineering.

Well, building construction.

When a firefighter arrives on the scene of a house fire, they have to know a little bit about building construction, how the house was built, Was it a modern built house or legacy house or an old house?

They the materials that were used 100 years ago is different than what they used day today.

Today we call it lightweight construction.

Those houses don't hold up as well in a fire as an older house, though.

So tell me a little bit more about how the fire gear has changed over the years.

Okay.

We have recruit box.

If he'll step over here and I'll show you some of the differences.

This is the modern, what we call personal protective equipment that a firefighter uses.

We have a coat, pants and boats that are specially built for firefighting.

He has a helmet.

And sitting to the side here is the self-contained breathing apparatus that we call an SCBA.

But this equipment has our the PPE has thermal layers and moisture barriers that keep the firefighter dry on the inside, but it protects him from the heat on the outside.

The scba and the turnout gear together weighs close to 100 pounds.

So if you're a 200 pound person, you're oh, now 300 pounds and it's a lot of weight to carry around.

And it you have to be physically fit to be a firefighter.

We'll have him put on his scba to show how a firefighter would put that on.

It's a lot like putting a coat on here.

This is, like I said, the Scba.

We have a bottle.

This is a 4500 psi bottle of compressed air, not oxygen, just air.

That firefighter will breathe in an environment that wouldn't sustain life with this.

It also has devices on it that it's called a pass device.

It's a personal safety device that if he goes down in a fire, lt's here and here and sounds will come out.

Start, activate, warn all the firefighters that are firefighters down if he doesn't move.

Go ahead and turn your scba on.

You hear the click.

A nice charge in the system where they're ready for him to put his mask on.

Go ahead and put your mask on.

Turn around and show him how you put your mask on.

Wow.

And you'll notice he'll pull up his hood.

It is a hood to protect the uncovered parts of his head from the heat and fire that he will encounter when he's firefighting.

You hear the beeping noise.

That beeping noise is that he's not moving.

He has to shake or rattle the past device to get it to shut off.

But if he was to go down and fire and not move after so many seconds, it starts beeping slightly.

And then as he doesn't move any more, it gets louder and louder and allows other firefighters to find him during a fire.

You hear it again say it's if he's not doing physical activity, it it would go off.

Go ahead and click up with your.

This is the regulator you hear when he brings.

You hear that sound?

Yeah, that's that's the one thing that you have to.

We like that when we go to schools and show kids about a firefighter, they a lot of times they'll put the scba on to let young kids hear that sound where if they are in a house fire and they hear that they know it's a firefighter close by, that's that's incredible.

So tell me a little bit more about like what the actual, like coat and pants do to protect against the extreme heat of the fire.

Well, it's a thing it doesn't protect for direct contact to fire.

But in a hot environment, up to 250, 300 degrees, it will protect the firefighter from injury.

Now, direct flame impingement can burn through this.

And so they that's why they put fire out before they get there.

Yeah, but it's it's the it's the same material here as it is here to protect the firefighter as entirely.

Wow.

That's incredible.

I mean, it.

Would you like to try on some of the equipment?

Yeah, that'd be cool.

All right, Match will try.

We'll start with the turnout pants.

Okay.

If you'll just step into that.

And firefighters generally still have their clothes on before they put turnout gear on to to a fire fully.

I won't chip in farther or anything.

I got you here.

Oh, it's like.

It's very thick.

It is.

You feel the weight of that already?

Oh, yeah.

They're flying these through so high a bit further.

And this one through here.

You see these little buckles right here?

Pull them down on both of them.

And that tightens up the suspenders for you.

It's crazy.

They notice all the flaps and Velcro and zippers.

That's the protect the firefighter from the smoke and heat getting in on their on the inside of the gear zipper there.

There's a yeah, there's a lot of protection all the way up.

And then we'll put the flap here and we'll follow that flap over.

Wow.

It's a lot.

Yeah, a lot.

Hood.

Put that on.

All right.

Perfect.

And what you do is you stuff that down in here and And a firefighter has to do this quickly to get to the fire.

Yeah, so it's very cumbersome, but I guess.

But it's what protects from the fire.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Helmet to all that weight so far.

Yeah, it's pretty heavy.

Okay.

And the next item is the Scba.

I feel way too, that I feel that grab right here with this hand and grab right here with this hand.

Bend over.

Now, pull those straps down.

Yeah.

Pull them on down.

There you go.

Yeah.

Cool.

That has the scba right in the right spot on you.

That's crazy.

Lot of weight, isn't it?

Oh, yeah, that's.

There.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

Thinking run a mile and they're probably not.

Take a very long time.

I would assume it's a That's what it feels like when you fight a fire.

It's like running.

Wow.

Bigger fire.

Running further.

Yeah, definitely.

Okay, Mitch, would you like to see some firefighter recruits use the turnout gear and some of their training evolutions?

Definitely.

Yeah.

Cool.

Okay, well, we're going to get you out of this gear and we'll get them started.

All right?

All right, Mitch.

We're to see what some of the training they do.

That's what we call company operations.

They're getting off the apparatus.

They will be stretching a free connect, which is an inch and three quarter hose, and each one of them will have a tool in their hand to do something.

And they're stretching this hose to get ready to go in the door.

And the next they have to push the door.

If you look to your left, right there, air Force on the door is just like in the real world.

They're going to push the door open.

Say, I go charge this line.

I just watch the line.

Okay, I get it.

They have to it out where there's no kinks in the line.

They have to make sure all the hoses out of their own span, and that's why they practice.

See, they didn't do that and make sure it was out there.

They'll do it again.

The water coming through on the part.

Firefighters have gone inside and done a primary search and they found the back from.

But bringing that picked them out, getting ready for the hose team to go inside while they're advancing the line in an the others to help them advance the line while they're still doing what they call a primary search.

So there's a lot of water going through that that hose right now.

Yes.

It'll be when they spray water, they'll spray between 100 to 150 gallons per minute.

Wow.

Seven tonight.

They're going up to the second level.

They're still searching for victims as they're going.

Yeah.

So how were they able to get that door open?

They use an ax to pinch him between the door and the doorjamb, and then they pried open when they sprayed water out of the second floor window.

It's the end of that evolution that's showing that they've made it all the way to the top and they've done what they're supposed to do.

Okay.

So what are they doing now?

They're bringing the light back out and it's an orderly.

They have to bring it out in an orderly fashion or to get wrapped around things or kinked up inside.

But they found another victim.

Wow.

So that's a it's a pretty big stake.

They have to go through like every little corner of that.

Exactly.

They have to check on top of beds under beds and closets.

And what they do is they call the first search is called a primary search.

And it's a quick hands failing around.

Once they get the fire under control, they do a secondary search where they do a more in-depth search.

Okay, Matt, you ready to see another evolution that we do in training firefighters?

That's called the maze.

Wow.

Okay.

That sounds cool.

Yeah, it's we use it to teach firefighters how to self rescue themselves.

It simulates different hazards that they may encounter while they're fighting a fire such as the floor giving way or wires hanging down, things like that.

So it's good practice for them here on in recruits.

Awesome.

Sounds good.

All right, Mitch, you ready to see the maze?

This is the evolution that firefighters used to train on if when they're in the fire, things happen.

You can't control what happens in the fire and forwards gave way.

Wires hang down, and this teaches them how to self-rescue themselves.

So if you're ready, we'll go up and see the maze.

Awesome.

Sounds good.

Image.

Here we are in the maze and I'm a hand You off to Captain Smith.

Here he is.

One of our lead instructors for recruits.

And he will show you how firefighters use the maze to learn how to rescue themselves and how to get out of situations that may come up during an impossible task.

So we're at what we call the situation maze.

All this is is a confidence builder for when we're we're in our BP that way.

If we're we are in a confined area or if we're involved in some sort of collapse or something like that where we become entangled or entrapped, that we maintain composure, we don't take off our breathing apparatus because that could potentially create a loss of life or at least an injury situation for us.

And so all this does is this is a safe environment where we can just work on skills of moving through tight spaces, passing through entanglement hazards, like we've got these robots that can simulate the structure from ductwork that's not burned away or anything like that.

Wow, this is crazy.

So how many like what kind of other obstacles do you have?

So right here, we've got an attic simulator there.

Like since this all swing type for balance, there's a small drop off.

We have some changes in elevation with some some pipes like some sewer pipes.

There's a small area that we lovingly call the coffin box because it's a long, slender and angular, narrow space.

There's some spaces that they'll pass through that that simulate passing through.

A framed wall stood at 16 inches on center.

Yeah, that's.

That's crazy.

Like, it's very a lot of it's very closed in.

Yeah.

It's great with building confidence with how to manipulate your body, like turning your hips or maintaining your your posture.

Like, good breathing, not panicking.

Yeah.

So this obstacle is to simulate passing through a wall.

So to imagine you got trapped in a building like you're cut off by fire and you couldn't escape.

We could breach a wall and pass through the wall studs.

And so even in this small environment, we can simulate the same thing.

So there's two methods that we that we use because they're pretty simple.

One, he's going to put his CBA bottle in the hole first, and then he's going to like he's doing a backstroke, put one arm through and then put the other arm through and all you have to do is twist drips so that your hips will pass and then he's free.

Once he passes through there, he's going to turn around and he'll do the other method that we teach, which is a Superman method, where you put both arms through, turn your shoulders.

When your hips get tight, you twist your hips and this squirt over.

Wow.

Yeah, that's.

I guess I work.

Yeah.

So, like, what happens if someone gets stuck in it?

We try to slow everything down and we talk them through it.

If we need to, we'll lighten up the environment.

No, it's a teachable moment where they.

They don't, you know, panic or, you know, get upset.

We can just talk through it and then let them repeat the skill.

So how would they, like, get like, I don't know, unstuck from like, something like that?

So, like entanglement hazards, like if you have a drip wires or anything like that, there's a space between your bottle and your back that acts like a it's a pinch point.

And the harder that you fight, the more entangled you get.

So the first thing we tell people to do and they know when they reach an entanglement hazard is to stop and not make it worse.

And so then they try to back up and they'll try to do some sort of a swim move and try to control whatever that entanglement is.

And then once you've got control of it and you're free of it, you're going to reduce your profile by turning your your back to to the side so that your bottle's not second straight up and then you pass through whatever obstruction that you've encountered.

Wow.

That's that's that's amazing.

Yeah.

Well, that kind of concludes the training that we're going to do over here at the Maze.

We can throw it back to Chief Willis, if that's okay.

Sounds great.

Wow.

This is all that is so fascinating today.

And I learned so much about firefighters.

Oh, good.

Glad to have you here, Mitch.

And I would like to invite you back in the future to come see some of our the programs such as EMT.

It's a great program.

We'd like to show you the different aspects of how we help the citizens around the state of Alabama through firefighting and EMS.

That would be amazing.

Thank you.

I'll see you next week on Alabama STEM explorers.

Well, as far for me how I fell in love with business.

Actually, my daddy had open heart surgery at one point and, you know, he he got inspired after that to start working out and start moving.

Well, I realized if I continue to go on his path, I would have out it would have happened to me as well, too.

So basically I just started working out and just kind of got into the industry and then, you know, just kind of fell in love with it, got inspired to start helping others.

Cardiovascular health is really important.

Whether you taking the stairs, you doing the Stairmaster treadmill or anything to get the heart pumping is really good.

Technology has advanced tremendously so someone can come in with the smartphone and it can track their steps.

We actually have equipment here that has a Life Connect app where you can download an app.

It'll tell you see it adjustments, it'll will give you workouts.

And not only that, you don't even have to be in a gym to do that.

You can do it at home.

It's in the spa and the equipment is just so much advanced now with computers and, you know, just different things like that.

So I would say we've come like we've come really far from 20, 30 years ago with technology to to help you, you know, achieve whatever fitness goals you had with being in this type of industry is so rewarding because you get a chance to see people from their starting point and they get a chance.

You get a chance to watch them grow, you build connections, it's so reward and you're actually doing something positive for business.

You're actually helping them, helping them feel better, helping them live better.

And it's something that is just so priceless.

And I if I had to say something to a young person, I think I would tell them this field is a lot reward and just because the is, you know, and that's, you know, 51, they're willing to lose 30 lbs.

And I remember having a conversation when I signed her up three months ago.

Now, you know, she's lost 30 lbs and she's telling me, Jacoby, like, I'm so happy that, you know, I walked into this gym and I was a part of her fitness journey.

So that so reward flight works.

Alabama is a learning center that is a partnership between Airbus and the state of Alabama.

I was a teacher for 11 years and I got my master's degree in STEM education as a science teacher for 11 years.

I constantly heard students and teachers saying if I had the more hands on learning experiences, just like what you're teaching, I would probably go far in science or I would keep going with science.

And so what turned me from teacher to director of education is to teach those teachers are to teach the students that come through here that STEM education is important and so is manufacturing.

You're saying that there are different paths, whether it's college or career.

You have options when it comes to STEM.

There are so many job opportunities when it comes to aviation and when people think of aviation, they automatically think of pilots or flight attendants or jobs like that.

But you have those manufacturing jobs that are behind the scenes where you are actually building these aircraft and you have the opportunity to make the aircraft different using what you learn.

The most unbelievable thing when it comes to my job is how much goes into making an aircraft.

I used to fly all the time, but to actually sit on an aircraft and look around and look at the wiring and the fuselage pieces and everything and the riveting the fasteners and everything that goes into it that goes around you, that is probably the biggest.

Wow.

Like I've always thought of aircrafts.

Oh, I know it's a lot to put together, but I didn't know exactly how much it takes an entire world to build an A320.

If a middle schooler came to me and started talking about, Oh, I'm thinking about being an engineer are going into aviation, do it is there is not just one job when it comes to it.

There is multiple engineers and there is multiple things that you can do when it comes to this job, whether it's painting an aircraft or building the aircraft or building parts for the aircraft, we need these fresh minds and fresh skills that come with students.

There's so many wonderful things I love about my job.

I love the fact that it's always different.

It's something new to learn every day, whether it's with aviation or manufacturing or just with the students that come in.

Everybody's always doing something different when it comes to flight work.

Thanks for watching.

Alabama STEM Explorers.

If you missed anything or you want to watch something again, you can check out our website at Frame of minds dot org.

Maybe you have a STEM question we could answer here on the show and you might grab a cool T-shirt.

Feel free to send us a video question or email on our website.

Thanks again for watching.

We'll be back next week.

Alabama STEM explorers is made possible by the generous support of the Holle Family Foundation established to honor the legacy of Brigadier General Everett Holle and his parents, Evelyn and Fred Holle, champions of servant leadership.