[Neal]

Well I attended a Fire Fighting course today at Lancashire Fire and Rescue training centre in Chorley. Someone got a photo of me in the fire gear and i'll add this when I receive a copy of it.

Anyway, about the day :flame::

Started at 9am where we attended a classroom and talked about the basic problems experienced by persons fighting fires. First break at 10am which included free brews and toast.

Started again at 1025am where video's were shown of fires taking hold and backdrafts and more talks on how to safely evacuate a building and what to do if you notice smoke or a fire.

Finished for lunch around 12pm which was a choice of delicious grub, all free and started again at around 1:00pm where we conducted an exercise to see how well we would deal with a fire including evacuating people from the building.

After a short break at around 3pm we then moved onto some firefighting and smoke awareness testing (Called something like that anyway) with the fire gear on. We first sat in a container which had a small fire set in the corner and all doors were closed. We saw how smoke rised and how the temperature at the top of the container was hotter than below, meaning below is safe so best to crawl your way out. It was smoky but good fun, I didn't need a cigarette for a while after!

We then saw various fires starting through cooking, such as chip pan and oven fire and people were able to have a go with fire extinguishers to put them out. The most shocking for me was when water was placed onto a chip pan with cooking oil on fire, which I know you shouldn't do. I've seen the videos online but to experience how quick and how far the fire shoots out of the pan and into all areas of the room was unreal, as well as the heat even though we were some distance away! A real eye opener for me.

Course finished at 5pm and i'm gutted I didn't take the camcorder and recorded some footage, which I was told I could have done. We have been told we are more than welcome to go back anytime to see firefighters in action which I may do and get some recording done.

It's apparently one of the best fire training centre's in Europe if not the World and most countries in Europe send their fire fighters there for training. Some we saw were even from Dubai.

If the post is a little rushed, i'm tired and covered in dirt!

All in all, an excellent day which I can't wait to attend on my refresher. Congratulations to the trainer Kim and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service. If you run an organisation and are thinking of sending your staff on fire training, I would recommend this course.