Firefighters training: ‘Seconds save minutes, and minutes save lives’

A dispatch came over the radio on a recent Thursday afternoon.

“We’ve got smoke coming from a second-floor balcony,” announced Huntington Beach Fire Department Battalion Chief Dave McBride.

Within seconds, three crews — each consisting of a captain, engineer and two firefighters trained as paramedics — arrived at the scene, and the first-arriving captain began giving commands.

The first engineer to arrive calculated how much water pressure was needed, while some of the crew assessed the inside of the house and others aimed a hose outside.

The situation was under control within minutes, as firefighters divvied up of tasks and carried them out in quick order.

The situation was just a simulation, part of regular group training sessions at the department’s training center on Gothard Street. The house was a prop, and the smoke came from smoke machines — no actual flames were involved — but it all served to help keep the firefighters’ skills sharp, McBride said.

“When the alarm goes off for a real emergency, we know these firefighters” are in top form, he added.

Such exercises help keep the department — which has 120 firefighters, about 40 of whom are on duty at any given time — on its toes and allows the battalion chiefs and captains to evaluate the staff’s skills.

“What we have at best is we see where we can improve,” said Battalion Chief Jeff Lopez. “It’s an opportunity for us to see these crews work as a team, following their individual crew trainings. This should be a demonstration for us of the training they’ve already been doing and how they’ve prepared.”

Eric Forshay, an engineer who has worked for the department for 11 years, said the simulated fire trainings allow engineers to use the skills they don’t get to utilize every day, like calculating the correct water hose pressure.

Engineers also drive the fire engines and perform the same duties as regular firefighters, including responding to medical calls.

“As an engineer, it allows me to operate the fire pump and be second in command,” he said. “We don’t get to do that very often in the field since fires aren’t very common. In these situations, we get to act out a scenario and maintain these skills.”

Sean Haynes, a captain who has worked for the department for 15 years, said the group trainings also serve as team-building exercises among crews and others in the department.

“The better trained that we are, the better we will handle the situations and understand the expectations of our department,” he said. “A well-trained crew has great morale. It builds camaraderie.... The more we train, the more time we save. Seconds save minutes, and minutes save lives.”

Each of the department’s crews go through group training a minimum of three times per year, McBride said. In addition, crews will regularly train on their own during downtime while on duty.

When the trainings started in the early 1970s, Westminster, Fountain Valley, Seal Beach, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa would train with the Huntington Beach firefighters, but over the years that collaboration dwindled for various reasons, including budget cuts and the increase in cities contracting with the Orange County Fire Authority, said Battalion Chief Jeff Lopez.

Today, only Fountain Valley units train with Huntington Beach.

As part of the annual trainings, the firefighters practice extricating people from autos and delivering medical care.

McBride said fires are not common in Huntington Beach — he credits increased preventive fire inspections — and added that the majority of calls are for medical aid.

During structure fire emergencies, a minimum of three fire engines with water hoses, one ladder truck and a battalion chief are called to the scene.

Unlike the fire engines, the ladder trucks do not have medical personnel onboard.

brittany.woolsey@latimes.com

Twitter: @BrittanyWoolsey