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V Trial by Fire by Lorraine Manfredo Staff Wriler Fire Captain Gord Weir heads toward the burning bunker with an armful of lumber. A minute ago lie threw in a bale of bay. He wants the fire real hot and smoky before lie sends bis crew in. It's training day for Clarington's part-time firefighters and the Bowmanvillc team is gathered round the smoldering cement bunker on Colonel Sam Drive in Oshawa, waiting for instructions. . Their mission is to find the lire source, knock it out, and search all three floors for possible occupants. "We do this at least twice a year, with different scenarios," Weir says. "It builds up their courage. They have to feel confident in the heat and smoke." But today, a Statesman reporter is suiting up too. The captain is keen to demonstrate the benefits of a new thermal thermal imager camera that's only been on the market short while. Every fire department is eager to add something like this to their truck, lie says, and Clarington hopes to be among the first. Thermal Camera Weir signals its time to go in. I'm having second thoughts. Sure, it's fun to jump into the big rubber boots with the pants attached, and try on the jacket and helmet. But it's against human survival instinct to go blindly into an unfamiliar, burning building. Of course, that's exactly what our firefighters might be required to do any time they get a call. I find just putting on the breathing apparatus (especially when I'm not ' much taller than the tank strapped to my back) is a lest of guts in itself. I try and slow my breathing, but my panicked hyper-ventilation is embarrassingly embarrassingly audible through the face mask, : Gord and the camera company rep reassure me. They've heard this before in green recruits. I'm just experiencing mild claustrophobia. claustrophobia. If I was REALLY claustrophobic claustrophobic I wouldn't tolerate the gear and I definitely would not go through this door into a burning building. The View Inside Gord, a true gentleman, goes in first. The door shuts behind us. "Do you sec the fire?" he asks. The heat is incredible, I think. Visibility is zero. It's totally dark from smoke, yet I know we are less than ten feet away from the leaping flames I saw Gord feeding minutes before. "Do you sec a red glow?" he asks again. T really don't, but now that he mentions it, I guess maybe I do. He guides me toward it -- six, seven baby steps. We crouch low and I can see the flames vaguely through the smoke and my fogged ,.up.facc mask. . . .■ ...,. ? - ■ ■ I cannot belie,vC tH'is- heat." r "Which way out?" he asks, (This is a test, thankfully. He's not the one who's disoriented.) It would be very easy to panic. I just want to run from all this HEAT! But I'm not sure now where the door went. In this dense smoke, even a flashlight can't help you sec your way. New Camera Finally, we're out again. But not for long. I'm handed the four-pound VISION thermal imager camera camera and sent right back in. The difference is amazing. Looking through the viewfinder, I realize there.arc actually two fires. The one dead ahead is immediately visible and a second one I wasn't aware of is 15 feel down a corridor corridor to my right. Captain Weir, walking walking toward it, is clearly visible and not just as a silhouette. silhouette. I see detail on his jacket and helmet. helmet. I see which way he is travelling. H. Ross Humphry, representative from Canadian Safety Equipment, explains that the resolution on this imager allows firefighters to navigate through areas they couldn't go through before. Weir, says-the.camera_would be a definite asset for searching a safely and thoroughly. HIGH TECH -- Statesman reporter Lorraine Manfredo enters a smoking bunker to check out a thermal imaging system now being marketed to fire departments all over North America. The new technology allows firefighters to clearly spot flames in a smoke-filled environment as well any objects or people around the fire. range not including options such as a remote device to transmit out to a command command vehicle. Walking around the fire with the camera made me somewhat braver. In fact, I feel a little swell-headed and brash after surviving the whole.ordeal. I tell Capt. Gord Weir this fire training training exercise would make a popular adventure weekend for corporate,exec- utives and other rich daredevils. T bet they'd pay good money for this kind of Clarington will compare three dif- adrenalin rush, feront manufacturers' models -- all Hey! Maybe that could be a way to with a basic price tag in the $25,000 ra j se f unc ] s for the camera. GET DOWN - Firefighters crouch low as they enter the smoke-filled bunker. HOLDING TANK - Water is drawn from a reservoir assembled on the scene. r Hs Comer BM ' 1 1 « f •'*,*.• •*.',% Jr - v : j.y "• '+4. 1 • **•& W NS*. I,',w V ®v/.' f v. •{ mmkM. IS THIS YOUR BIKE, MISS? -- The Durham Regional Police hosted their annual Safe Kids Community Day at the Bowmanvillc station Saturday, May 30. Visitors were invited to tour the station, watch demonstrations by specialized police units, and even sit on a real police motorcycle. Above, Constable Ron Rahim of the OPP in Whitby, lets Allison Madgett, age \ 4, sit on his bike. te; ■ . ; X)■■"'Liskt:.:--:' 1 . ..'lyèl HEAVYWEIGHT CONTENDER -- Limba, who tips the scales her handlers from the Bowmanvillc Zoo dropped by the local police at 8,000 pounds, gave children a mammoth workout during a tug- station in the afternoon to join in the fun and games of Kids Safety o-wttr at Bowmanvillc's 16 Division on Saturday, The elephant and Day.