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Hey guys, I'm looking for some ideas on low budget training props. Some things I am looking for are some sort of forcible entry door prop, low profile/entanglement, and some scba confidence props. Any ideas or pictures or plans you guys could throw at me would be helpful. We recently acquired a building and I'd like to dress it up so we can really drill hard. Thank You!!
One low budget idea for the entanglement prop is a cargo net.
I have one that is basically 4"x4" squares for a truck bed. It is made of elastic material basically made to hold down cargo in the bed.
Have them crawl around doing a search or whatever and drop it over them. It can be trying because sometimes they do not even know it was dropped until they move another 10 feet or so and are good and tangled.
Of course you could also make up a wire prop of cheap wiring found wherever.
And then appropriately name it the cuss-o-matic prop.
We have also taken our old station and made a training center out of it. We built a home layout with only 4' walls which also enabled us to build a second floor of 4' walls with stairs on both sides.
We used 2"x4" boards and 4'x8' OSB. We also made a couple of walls with drywall for wall breaching practice. We use a smoke machine to smoke it up.
I have been in this prop 100 times and I still get lost sometimes.
The 4 foot walls are for two purposes. One for trainers to keep an eye on all participants and to teach everyone to stay low. A good tap on the helmet will teach them when they are getting to high. We also in the advanced classes will make them "go down" and a mayday to be called (all practice of course).
All are low budget and are very useful.
If you need funds for materials go to Lowes, Home Depot or Wal Mart and ask about donations. We had a lot donated to us.
Take a look here for a previous topic on simple training props.
http://www.firehouse.com/forums/t121073/
Take a look at this simple forcible entry door prop.
http://my.firefighternation.com/foru...age=2#comments
Youtube has some props. Type in firefighting training videos and look for obstacles.
Here's one I made with some pallets, scrap 2x4's and old x-mas lights for entanglement.
Heres a few I put together for next to nothing but my time. Talk to your local Lumber/Hardware store about a donation.
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...4700C59677.jpg
This was a simple 4x4 post in a 55 gallon barrel with concrete in the bottom. i screwed flanges and a few galvanized fittings to it, some rebar and its now a cutting station
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...46FC1D2D9A.jpg
Some left over trusses a few sheets of ply wood and 2 bundles of shingles later and we have a roof prop.
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...4705808F1D.jpg
entanglement prop
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...470A70284B.jpg
simple left over ply wood with triangles and squares sprayed onto it. you'd be surprised how much this helps reinforce how to swing a damn axe.
wish I had pictures of our props we use, but some of our simple props are built out of nothing but 2x4's and plywood.
we have several different ones
Confined space/wall breach - dont have exact specs on this but its 2 walls parallel to each other about 16" apart, and long enough to fit a FF in on their knees, and at the end of this is a piece we built to accept a piece of dry wall cut down to slide down in so they can breach, and do self rescue techniques between the studs.
Entanglement prop - again no specs, build to what you would like..our is about 6 feet long with 3 foot high wall sides..open on each end..and running from one wall side to the other is sections of rope, wires, and anything else that can drape into the open and tangle the FF up..they enter one side and move through practicing a sweep technique as well as SCBA relocation if needed.
As far as the scba confidence, we usually start with a blacked out mask and make them follow a hoseline throughout a room. While doing this we throw different things at them, such as a snag on an airpack, a simulated collapse (piece of chain link fence laid on them and held by instructors), entrapment scenarios (they enter a room and the door gets shut behind them), etc.
as they hit these obstacles they practice calling a mayday and whatever self rescue method they may choose to try to mitigate the situation...hope this helps some, I can send pics if needed as well, I know its pretty vague from the descriptions
We have a dummy made out of old hose and duct tape... weights almost as much as a small man and takes a beating. We just throw an old jacket and pants on it.