Digital simulator to boost firefighting skills in northern Alberta
Randy Siemens thinks the world of his crew of paid-on-call and volunteer firefighters who help keep their community safe.
Still, the fire chief with Lamont County Emergency Services, in northern Alberta, would love to regularly send his team into worst-case-scenario fire situations – where smoke, heat, and flame would make their job nearly impossible.
Siemens will soon get his wish. With the help of a Safe Community grant from Enbridge, Lamont County Emergency Services is $10,000 closer to the purchase of an Attack Digital Fire Training System, which the department hopes to buy later this year. This state-of-the-art firefighting simulator is designed to provide all the elements of a firefighting experience – without any of the danger of live fire.
“We can put our people through a live fire situation with zero risk,” says Siemens.
The simulator produced by BullEx, the world’s largest provider of fire and safety training tools, replicates an authentic fire scene through sound, smoke, and heat. It uses video screens to simulate fire on the walls and roof of a structure. These digital flames also respond to a laser from the hose, which is weighted with steel beads so it feels full of water. The equipment will be set up in a stacked shipping container structure – intended to simulate a two-storey building – at the Lamont County Emergency Services Training Center.
“It all creates an experience that’s surprisingly close to the real thing,” says Siemens.
This simulated fire training system offers key advantages over the real thing, says Siemens. It will allow first responders in Lamont County to train more than 300 days a year, while trainers can operate the simulator without fuel expenses, water waste, or lost time due to setup or cleanup for live fire exercises. That means Siemens can regularly train his EMS teams, as well as those from the departments of nearby communities, at no cost per training session.
“These guys might get called out a couple times a year – the rest of the year they’re mechanics or hardware store managers. Then, suddenly, we need them to be skilled firefighters,” he says. “By keeping those skills current, we’re keeping the community and the firefighters safer.”
Keeping communities and first responders safe is the whole point of Enbridge’s Safe Community program, notes Lisa Seeley, a Community Relations Advisor for Enbridge’s Western Region.
Since its inception, Enbridge has invested $7-million in North American emergency responder organizations near our projects and operations. This support is part of a broader message of appreciation, explains Seeley.
In Lamont County, a previous Enbridge Safe Community grant was used for the training center.
“We are so thankful to Lamont County for welcoming us as a member of their community,” she says. “We want to give back to the community by supporting their local training facility – and all the first responders who will benefit from its use.”
