CHIEF BILL XIKIS
Selden FD & BTRTF Manager

» Also: BTRTF Members Participate in HOT at Firehouse Expo in Baltimore, MD

BALTIMORE, MD - Thousands of Firefighters and EMS workers attended the 2006 Firehouse Expo training in Baltimore, Maryland. Hands-on training was conducted on July 25 and 26, 2006.

Firefighters throughout the country participated in numerous sessions in the near 100 degree outside temperatures. Sessions included; live burn, firefighter survival, engine and truck operations, advanced vehicle extrication, forcible entry, breaching/breaking of concrete, crane operations, trench rescue, thermal imaging cameras, etc..

Wednesday, July 26, 2006, also started pre conference workshops and Chief leadership classes. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the professional information programs were held. These classroom sessions ran from one and a half hours each to 16 hours each. 100 classroom training's were conducted.

Long Island Fire Departments turned out in force. Due to the relatively short drive to Baltimore, Long Island firefighters were able to participate in this intense training which will be used back home to expand the knowledge of all the ranks in the fire service.

The included photos show the concrete breaking, breaching/metal cutting and burning and crane operations and rigging class. This class was 16 hours of back breaking work where students learned how to use various cutting torches including; the oxy-acetylene, oxy-propane, petrogen, plasma and exothermic.

The heavy rigging and crane operations section had students direct a crane operator -using hand signals- in lifting heavy objects the students rigged. They started by lifting a one-ton concrete pipe, then a 14.5-ton bus, 20-ton steel I beam and finished off with a 29-ton section of roadway from a parking garage.

The concrete section had students cut and breach through 10 inches of 8,000 PSI concrete, reinforced with steel, by using a diamond tipped chain saw (the Stanley system) and by drilling holes close together and chipping away between them to remove the section of concrete.

Students also used gas powered rotary saws to cut and remove a section of concrete rated at 7,000 PSI and eight inches thick. Because the rotary saws only cut at a depth of about five inches, a special technique called a "step cut" had to be used. This work is extremely labor intensive and time consuming. Each station took about four hours to complete.

This class had 35 students. 13 were from the Brookhaven Technical Rescue Task Force, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. For additional pictures see www.LongIslandRescue.com/BTRTF.