EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) -- The flames started licking up the west wall of the bedroom as the firefighters prepared to enter the trailer. Once inside, the three-man crew found itself in the middle of a "rollover'' as the flames raced up to the ceiling, across the room and down the hallway. The temperature rose to about 1,500 degrees.
With the first blast of water, however, the temperature quickly dropped to 1,000 degrees. As the flames decreased, the smoke increased. A firefighter opened a window, and the crew aimed the water out the window. Water shot out, pulling the smoke with it, a technique called "hydraulic ventilation.''
Within minutes, the fire was completely extinguished - until the next crew was ready to enter the special trailer from the Kansas Fire and Rescue Training Institute of the University of Kansas.
The trailer, along with instructor Bill Schwindamann of the Marysville Fire Department, was in Emporia for three days in July. The trailer, parked at Fire Station 2, allowed Emporia firefighters on all three shifts to train each morning.
Recently, volunteer firefighters from Olpe, Allen and Emporia took their turn.
The unit is paid for by a grant from the state fire marshals office, funded by a 2 percent fee added to all fire insurance policies in the state of Kansas. Schwindamann is one of five instructors trained to run the burn trailer.
The state-of-the-art trailer is built of metal with movable panels inside that can be moved to create different floor plans. The trailer can be used to simulate a kitchen fire or bedroom fire with rollover. By coming down a stairway from the roof, firefighters can practice fighting basement fires, where the stairwell acts as a chimney, drawing flames and smoke upward, Schwindamann said.
"Basement fires are the most dangerous fire for firefighters,'' he said. "They can learn what the heat is like, what the smoke is like and how to safely descend the staircase. It also can be used to practice search and rescue techniques.''
The unit is built to burn propane and has a control room on one end where Schwindamann and other instructors can monitor what's happening inside. Throughout the trailer are emergency stop switches. If any one is tripped, an alarm sounds in the control room and the propane shuts off.
Schwindamann also controlled the unit while he watched from the control room, which is separated from the interior of the trailer by 8 inches and two panes of thermal glass.
Before the exercise, he told the firefighters not to turn their backs on the fire. They were to walk toward the fire and back out as they extinguished it. If he saw anyone turn around, Schwindamann could kill the exercise.
In the opposite end of the trailer, Capt. Bill West of the Emporia Fire Department was in full bunker gear. West went in with those training. While Schwindamann armed the rollover in the control room, West held the switch to activate it.
All in all, it's an improvement over the old burn trailer that required hay bales to be ignited and required firefighters to monitor their actions so the fire wouldn't go out.
"This was pretty cool,'' said Emporia firefighter Kristi Godfrey about the new trailer. "The other one you couldn't put it all the way out because it had to rekindle.''
For Godfrey, the time in the trailer was her first experience with a rollover.
"Rollover'' is an effect that happens after a fire has been burning for a while and conditions are right.
"It takes oxygen, heat and fuel to make a fire go,'' Schwindamann said.
Many fires have heat and fuel but not enough oxygen for a rollover. But firefighters need to be prepared, because opening a door to enter a room with fire can bring in the extra oxygen needed for a rollover. The trailer lets the firefighters see the effect and learn what it feels like in the safe environment.
That's the biggest benefit of the trailer, Schwindamann said, especially for volunteer firefighters.
"The volunteers don't see enough actual burns,'' he said. "This helps them own a lot.
It also helped them learn the hydraulic ventilation technique.
"That's the old system,'' Schwindamann said, "before ventilation fans came in.''
With hydraulic ventilation, the high-pressure water from the fire house is aimed out an open window.
If the window opening is hit at just the right angle, there's enough room around the spray to pull smoke out with the water.
The smoke itself is another advantage of the new burn trailer, Schwindamann said. Unlike the smoke normally encountered in a fire, it's nontoxic and can be breathed without damage, although firefighters still used their air packs. And the best part is that training with the fire trailer is free for fire departments.
