Fire is a simple thing, really.

Fuel is heated until it gives off gasses. The gasses combine with oxygen. The reaction produces heat. The heat perpetuates the cycle. Take away any of these elements — remove the fuel, exclude the oxygen, cool the system, or interfere with the chemical reaction — and the fire will cease. This is the art of firefighting.

Or so I thought.

It turns out that firefighting is far more complicated than simply “putting the wet stuff on the red stuff.” For example, some fires can only be effectively extinguished by covering them with a dry power; putting water or foam on burning metal will often exacerbate the flames. Then there’s search and rescue, salvage and overhaul, the seemingly endless folding of hoses… the list goes on. Thanks to a class that I’ve been taking these past few months, I got to learn many of these skills.

Before the class, I could write the chemical equations that describe fire with ease. For example, the complete combustion of carbon monoxide can be described as: 2 CO + O₂ -> 2 CO₂. Before the class, I had used a fire extinguisher on a single occasion to (unsuccessfully) extinguish a fire. Before the class, I had driven a fire truck and randomly actuated enough of its levers to get it to pump water.

Now that I’ve taken the class, I know the best water patterns to battle blazes in certain situations. I appreciate things such as thermal layering. I know how to read the fire and predict its behavior: Is a flashover imminent? Where is the seat of the fire? Will a backdraft occur if I open that door?



Thanks to the class, I can now do forcible entry (useful for when a locked building is on fire). Hoses, nozzles, and hydrants are no longer a mystery. How about ventilating buildings with chainsaws, axes, and fans? Yup, I learned that too.

I even learned about pike poles, which some argue are the tools that began the association of Pike with fire trucks. (Warning, tangent ahead: What if a Pike chapter took it upon themselves to do something to benefit the local fire department, in a charity sort of way?)

Learning book knowledge is great, but hands-on experience can’t be beat. That’s why my favorite parts of the class were the labs. Of those, my favorite labs were the ones with live fire. There’s nothing like “playing” with real water and real fire! With both the physical and mental tasks committed to memory, I was prepared for certification.



A week ago, I took the state “Firefighter I” certification test. It consisted of a 150-question multiple-choice test and four practical tests. The practical tests were: knots and ropes, salvage and overhaul, tool cleaning and maintenance, and search and rescue with SCBA. I aced three of them and got a 92% on the search and rescue evolution. The written test seemed easy, but I won’t have an official score for a couple of weeks. Regardless, barring some complete mental lapse on my part, I believe that I successfully completed the firefighter certification. Woohoo!

Overall, the class was a fun, enlightening experience, an excellent diversion from the routine cubicle existence of my full-time job. The class was well-run, and the teacher was one of the best that I’ve had — Rose profs or otherwise.

So, now what? Well, I’d still like to be a volunteer firefighter once I move to an area that has such a department. I like the idea of battling fire and saving lives and property. I just don’t think that I would want to be a career firefighter; besides, it is insanely difficult to get a job as a full-time fireman. In the meantime, I’ll content myself with memories of the class and stories in books. My firefighter certification will be just one among many other licenses that I don’t use: firearms, motorcycle, and ham radio, to name a few. For now, all I need to do is to make sure that my future house is close to a fire station.