July 18--Without breaking a sweat or using more than a joystick and headset, fire school students put out a fire at a virtual refinery.
The students, taking part in the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service's annual Industrial Fire School, moved their avatars around the cyber-scenario to assess the situation and figure out how to respond.
While rain and lightning kept some student firefighters from practicing outdoors, fire officer training continued inside the Emergency Operations Training Center without a hitch Wednesday.
The Industrial Fire School kicked off Monday with more than 700 students looking to gain knowledge in fighting fires on oil rigs and in refineries and chemical plants.
But fire training consists of more than fire extinguishers and hoses.
The people in charge of decision-making during emergency situations get their training at Brayton Fire Training Field as well.
"We try to make them sweat without really sweating," said lead instructor Pete Greco, who is the fire chief for refining company LyondellBasell in Houston. "They mentally sweat."
This is the first year TEEX is offering the advanced firefighting course focused on command operations with the "serious gaming" technology.
"It's video game technology, but we're using it to develop skills and techniques," said Jason Moats, program director with TEEX. "They're doing a lot of thinking here because these are the folks who direct [the firefighters]."
The 12 students from various companies worked with eight instructors, who were either mentoring them during the simulation or controlling the scenario, which could include an explosion or additional fires if the students made mistakes, from computers in a separate room.
The advantage of using the simulations was that the students, who averaged 15 years of experience responding to fires, practiced with three different scenarios before 2 p.m. and were not affected by the weather, Moats said.
"If we were doing that on the field, it might take two to three days, and it would be expensive," he added.
Instead, the simulations allowed the students, many of whom work as emergency managers or coordinators in the petrochemical industry, to gain "real-life experience in a shorter amount of time," Greco said.
TEEX's Municipal Fire Schools caps off the month at Brayton Field starting July 21.
Copyright 2013 - The Eagle, Bryan, Texas
