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BY JERRY BATTISTE
Updates and upgrades at Bluffton Fire Department mean safer residents and safer firefighters.
From advanced training to replacing the city’s oldest fire hydrant firefighters are seeing progress all around them.
The hydrant, which was replaced last month, was installed in the late 19th century, around the same time the department was founded.
City workers found the hydrant leaking one day in early spring. It was old, obviously, and new parts for it are no longer available, so it hard to come out. Like a first-grader with a wiggly front tooth, the hydrant was plucked clean and replaced with a brand new one. Oddly enough, it was hard for the media to tell the difference between the old hydrant and the new one. There was no doubt the street department knew when the hydrant was installed, it was simply a matter of the technology; they looked nearly identical.
Fire Captain Ken Baker has spent more than three decades at the Bluffton department. He said the hydrants look the same because they are.
“The basic fire hydrant really hasn’t changed much since they went to this design,” Baker said. Initially cities would install a long water pipe which ran just below the surface. At intervals there would be a plug set into the pipe for access to fight fires. Hence the term, “fire plug.”
Replacing the hydrant meant little to firefighters, Baker said. For a real sign of progress, he suggests a visit to the big blue trailer recently parked behind the station.
Inside is an Indiana Public Employer’s Plan state of the art driving simulator. Firefighters had a week to spend two hours each behind the wheel of an authentic computer driven simulator.
IPEP makes training time in the simulator available free to members.
Since coming into service in 2007 more than 3000 emergency services drivers have completed the simulated course.
A couple years ago Wells County Sheriff’s Deputies had an opportunity to train on the machine. Last month Bluffton firefighters and police officers had their chance.
The entire simulator sits inside a big blue trailer. Three giant screens provide a realistic driver’s-eye view complete with authentically placed side mirrors. An array of switches, knobs, buttons and lights cover the dash. The simulated drivers area comes with a manual version, but since most trucks are automatic, it is hardly ever used.
Training on a simulator is nice, given firetrucks are an expensive commodity, but it’s only software. Firefighters have also seen improvements in the hardware they are equipped with.
Specifically, a piece of hardware that might save a firefighter’s life.
Every summer firefighters, covered in heavy turn-out gear to protect them from flames, suffer severe heat related injuries and end up in the Bluffton Regional Medical Center emergency room.
To beat the heat, firefighters asked the Bluffton Board of Public Works and Safety to buy a $2,000 Four-Person Rehab Station.
Firefighter Chris Broderick has worked as a police officer and a first responder. He has seen firefighters succumb to the heat during warm days in every season.
“This device is going to save lives,” he said. “Ours.”
The equipment is very simple: what looks like an ice chest is filled with ice and water. Firefighters wear blue vests layered with tubing connected to the chest which circulate the cooling water. Firefighters have tested the equipment for themselves. Broderick said the vest cooled him down much quicker than he anticipated.
“With this vest on someone who is overheated can lower their core body temperature much quicker than they could just sitting in the shade, drinking water,” he said.
EMS units work every fire scene monitor firefighters wearing the vests and will know if further care is needed.
The oldest fire hydrant in Bluffton has a place reserved at the Wells County Historical Museum, though several private individuals have expressed interest in adding it to their collection.
The life-saving rehab vests and the added experience of time spent at the driving simulator are signs of progress in a department whose basic mission has not changed and likely never will.
jerryb@news-banner.com