Fire brigade exercise in storage facility

The scenario is already set. One of the storage rooms is on fire, and a company employee tried to extinguish the blaze but fell ill in the process. He was reported missing when the alarm was raised. A second employee is also missing. The victims, in this case two dummies, are placed strategically. “This one tried to put out the fire,” explains Arjan as he points to a dummy lying in front of the fire source with a hose in its hand. “Behind the open door is another, which is harder to rescue because he’s beyond the flames. The crew can’t go past the fire, so they have to find an alternative route to that victim.” With a smoke simulator, a flashing beacon and a machine that mimics the crackling sound of fire, the exercise is made as realistic as possible. The eight firefighters who arrive on site after the alarm take the drill very seriously. “Sir, my two colleagues are still inside,” calls out Patrick Kok of Eurobox Self Storage. One of the firefighters takes him aside to ask for details about the building and the location of the fire. Two others go in to search for the victims. The rest of the team combs the site for a hydrant to which they can connect the hose. By then one of the victims has already been rescued, but the other still lies behind the open door. It all seems to take ages, but according to Arjan van Ombergen that’s perfectly normal. “At a fire like this you’d really need a second team—that would speed things up a lot. And the fact that the fire isn’t put out straight away is deliberate. If you extinguish it too quickly, it generates so much smoke that you’d effectively be smoked alive. The trick is to keep the fire under control for as long as possible until everyone in the area is clear.” And that’s exactly how it goes. Once the second victim is rescued, the firefighters finally put out the blaze—although in this case that simply means pulling the plug. “The exercise went well,” the crew conclude, satisfied.