‘An eye-opener:’ Fort Worth leaders learn what it takes to be a firefighter in Fire Ops 101

A small group of Fort Worth City Council members and staff sit in a semi-circle late Friday morning, listening intently as instructors from the city’s fire department explain how to use the tanks of compressed air sitting in front of them. Moments later, the officials strap the air tanks on their back, don fire jackets and helmets and enter a building with a live fire.

After about 10 minutes of watching the fire grow in the two-story building and crawling through smoke on their hands and knees, the city leaders emerge once more into the sunshine and fresh air.

The live fire behavior class is just one scenario in Fire Ops 101, an event hosted by the Fort Worth Professional Firefighters union in conjunction with the fire department. The training is held every few years and gives Fort Worth’s decision makers a chance to experience some of the realities firefighters face daily.

“This is our way of showing council members and city staff what our job is,” said Michael Glynn, president of the Fort Worth Professional Firefighters Association.

Glynn calls the money Fort Worth spends on firefighters’ gear and equipment an investment. Examples include thermal imaging cameras that help firefighters find victims in a smoke-filled room and the extra sets of gear that firefighters can change into after being exposed to harmful toxins in a structure fire.

Councilmember Chris Nettles, District 8, said the brief time of seeing the conditions firefighters work under every day was educational for him.

“Today was an eye-opener, the conditions that the firefighters face each and every day,” he said. “And so I think it’s even more important that we make sure as a city that they have all the necessary tools that they need.”

Nettles referenced the thermal imaging cameras that the council recently approved funding for. The cameras allow firefighters to detect hotspots, see the layout of a smoke-filled room and locate victims. The city officials got to use them in the live fire behavior scenario.

“It works. It’s beautiful,” Nettles said.

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Councilmember Alan Blaylock, of District 10, said the event increased his respect for the training and physical conditioning that firefighters undergo. He was also impressed by the fire response demonstration as the firefighters extinguished a one-alarm fire in one of the training buildings.

“It’s not just a bunch of guys showing up,” he said. “They work together, well-coordinated in all their efforts.”

Early in the day, the city officials learned about the different trucks firefighters use and the purpose of the tools and other apparatus that go into the job. They also got to practice the extrication techniques firefighters use to rescue victims trapped inside vehicles after a crash. Instructors showed them how to stabilize the vehicle, cut open the windshield and take the door off.

Assistant City Manager Dana Burghdoff said using the “jaws of life” during this part of the training was especially interesting for her.

“It’s fun to see all of the different kinds of equipment and tools and protective gear that the firefighters use, and all of the different kinds of jobs that they’re asked to handle,” she said.

According to Firefighter Calab Crow, every day is different. People tend to think firefighters just fight fires, but they are really “problem solvers,” Crow said. From cleaning up hazardous materials to responding to malfunctioning indoor sprinkler systems, any 911 call that doesn’t fit police or Emergency Medical Services goes to them.

Crow comes from a family of firefighters and has been with the Fort Worth Fire Department for 12 years. After getting a degree in graphic design and working in that field for a couple of years, he decided to return to his first love and joined the fire department.

To Crow and his fellow firefighters, the work is more than a way to earn money.

“(I’m) compelled to the calling of helping others,” he said.