Firefighters were searching for each other in a Fort Ord abandoned building for more than 20 minutes Friday afternoon. Three of them were separated from their rescue teams.
The crackling over the scanner and the shrieking sounds of the personal alarms that firefighters wear made it sound realistic, but for the 60-plus firefighters it was a drill to teach them how to rescue each other.
"These are scenarios where firefighters are trapped and killed," said Stewart Roth, a division chief with Monterey Fire Department.
Firefighters from the Bay Area and Southern California came into town for the two-day training on the former Army base.
After going through classroom instruction Thursday, students put on their gear and went to an old building on First Avenue and Fifth Street and put their skills to use.
Dry ice, which looks like smoke, filled the two-story building and the dark environment was similar to what firefighters could face on a real call.
"This is probably the most important training you go through," said South San Francisco firefighter Devin Flannery. "We were talking about communication and staying calm."
The simulated call began as an investigation of smoke and flames in the abandoned buildings. Firefighters began assembling and went into the buildings in teams of four. A call came about a firefighter who fell through the second floor. Then another call came about a firefighter who got separated.
Teams surveyed the building and used a saw to cut through a metal gate and broke through a boarded-up window on the second story to get inside.
Minutes after the Mayday call, firefighters found their "victims," who were dragged out of the door or descended a ladder from the second floor.
Firefighter Jeff Barone said Friday's training was realistic except for the heat.
"You can't see one foot in front of your face," Barone said.
The program, called advanced rapid intervention crew training, is offered a couple times a month, Roth said.
"We have these assignments so we don't have to rescue the rescuers," he said.
