In the Heat of Battle : School Teaches Firefighters to Deal With Petroleum Blazes

The tight formation of five firefighters faced the roaring flames of a gasoline blaze and then moved toward it behind a spray-shield of water.

“Step,” the leader commanded, and the team moved as one. “Step. Step.”

With taps on the shoulders of two lead men manning the nozzles of hoses on his right and left, he maneuvered the team toward a shut-off valve, advancing unswervingly into the searing heat that intimidated unprotected spectators 50 feet away.

When he could reach the valve, the leader simulated closing it and then backed his men slowly away, staying behind the protective spray.

The attack ended another successful exercise at the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Del Valle Fire Training School.

Soon another team formed to repeat the drill, one of thousands conducted yearly to teach about 2,000 professional and volunteer firefighters how to fight oil, gasoline and propane fires--mostly at refineries--while they are still small enough to be controllable.

James R. Jeter, safety manager for Union Pacific Resources’ refinery in Wilmington, led a group of 28 operations and maintenance employees through exercises one day recently. Members of his crew are volunteers on the firm’s emergency response team.

They drilled under supervision of the County Fire Department.

Fire Capt. Mike Brownlie of Fire Station 73 in Newhall explained a drill simulating a burning gasoline tanker at a loading dock and then led his engine crew--engineer Don Thompson and firefighters Paul Wenzel and Howard Spinrad--and Jeter through it.

The drills went smoothly. And later, Brownlie said he thought the Union Pacific Resources men had performed “real well.”

Del Valle conducts exercises, or burns, as firefighters call them, from 120 to 130 days a year. The county charges a fee, but the Fire Department gets help from private firms in operating the school, according to Battalion Chief Larry Miller, the Fire Department’s director of training.

“It’s the only place of its kind in Southern California,” Miller said. “The nearest similar facility is in Reno at the University of Nevada.”

The school, located on a plateau within sight of Magic Mountain’s Sky Tower in Valencia, has props to simulate real-life conditions at dangerous fires: a defective propane valve burning out of control, a refinery pipe connection spewing flaming gasoline and a burning gasoline tanker.

Developed jointly in the late 1950s by the County Fire Department and Union Oil, Del Valle is used by a number of other oil companies with refineries in the Los Angeles Basin, including Texaco, Shell, Arco and Mobil.

The County Fire Department and Los Angeles Fire Department train there, too.

Eventually, fire officials hope to develop the 160-acre site into a north Los Angeles County facility for basic firefighter training.

And, in preparation for the great earthquake expected to hit Southern California some day, planners want to develop a heavy-rescue training area, including a “collapsed” building with tiny spaces where firefighters can practice pulling “victims” to safety.

“The focus is getting ready for the big one,” Miller said.