'Maze' teaches firefighters to navigate every which way, builds confidence

'Maze' teaches firefighters to navigate every which way, builds confidence

By Charles McMahon
cmcmahon@fosters.com

Monday, November 16, 2009

McMahon/Democrat photo Portsmouth firefighter Brian Wade works to negotiate a three-level maze in the dark.

PORTSMOUTH — With forty pounds of equipment strapped to their back, a face mask and nothing but a flash light, Port City firefighters crawled, crammed and twisted their way through a three-level maze as part of the department's continued training regiment.

Owned by the state, "The Maze" has 130 feet of challenging crawl space including five manholes, five pass throughs, four horizontal, four vertical, and four diagonal obstacles. It also includes a crawling pipe to simulate a sewer pipe/tunnel operation.

Also attached to the large trailerlike training module is a control room that allows for training officers to watch their fellow firefighters navigate through the dark maze using infrared cameras. The control room includes a control station with an intercom system with the main unit in the control room and two intercom stations in the maze area.

Asst. Fire Chief Steve Achilles said the training is all about improving a firefighter's "confidence, teamwork and knowledge."

In groups of two, the firefighters don their air packs and safety gear, climb to the roof the trailer and slowly lower themselves into the dark maze below.

By pairing up firefighters and allowing them to utilize only a flashlight, Achilles said it will strengthen their communication skills and their ability to work in confined spaces.

"It builds confidence and gets you familiar with your air pack and air consumption rate," Achilles said.

The training module is also used for new firefighters fresh out of the Fire Academy.

"New recruits get put through this and it really is a telltale sign if you're claustrophobic," he added.

Fresh out of winding his way through the dark gauntlet and only slightly out of breath, Capt. Tim Collins said the exercise is a good way of exposing firefighters to situations involving something other than fighting fire.

"It's not the same as a fire by any means, but it gets you situational awareness with your gear on," Collins said.

The fire captain said he considered the training to be a good exercise and most importantly a confidence builder.

McMahon/Democrat photo Portsmouth firefighters Patrick McDonagh and Brian Wade work together to negotiate a three-level maze in the dark recently.



Maze Portrait of Albert Einstein.

Maze Portrait of Albert Einstein.