Reserve Firefighters Train to Take on the Heat

By. Sgt. David Turner, 214th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

BLUE GRASS ARMY DEPOT, Ky. " As the sun begins to set on a hot Kentucky summer afternoon, firefighters of the 295th Ordnance Company from Hastings, Neb. are just suiting up for their main training event of the day. The temperature outside is well above 80 degrees, but the humidity makes it feel like over 100. Inside their fireproof suits, it can easily feel another 20 degrees hotter.

A professional firefighter, helping to train these Reservists, checks the temperature gauge outside the “burn room,” a small structure used to simulate a building on fire. Inside, bales of hay are set alight, quickly bringing the temperature up to 900 degrees and higher. Then it’s time to get to work.

“All we can really burn in there are pallets and hay, but a thousand degrees is a thousand degrees, no matter how big the room is,” said Sean Brewer, Fire Chief of the Blue Grass Army Depot Fire Department.

Fighting a live fire is a once-a-year opportunity for members of the 295th, a chance for them to use their military occupational skills while supporting Operation Golden Cargo. During their two weeks here, they have the chance to train with a professional fire department on a daily basis.

“We don’t have a lot of opportunities to do MOS training on drill weekends because there’s a lot of maintenance, upkeep and paperwork,” said Spc. David Yelovich, a resident of Papillion, Neb., with the 295th. Although he is a full-time firefighter in civilian life, most members of his team only get to do this kind of work once a year, in annual training. As firefighters serving in a company of ammunition handlers, said Yelovich, they rarely even get the chance to work with the equipment issued to them.

Another benefit of training here is that it not only keeps their skills refreshed, it keeps them viable by allowing them to update their annual certifications, said Yelovich. In order to keep their certifications up to date, firefighters must train with live fire, hazardous materials, emergency medical procedures and more. Supporting Operation Golden Cargo gives them the chance to get that training, and Blue Grass Army Depot’s fire department not only functions as a full-time fire department; they serve an Army post which houses huge stockpiles of all kinds of munitions, including a large share of the military’s chemical weapons.

“If it wasn’t for this annual training, we wouldn’t be able to keep our certifications,” said Yelovich.

During their time here, the firefighters of the 295th progress from equipment maintenance and fundamental skills, all the way up to fighting live fires, extracting casualties from vehicles, and performing potentially dangerous high-angle rescue missions.

“We start from ground zero with them,” said Brewer. “Some of them haven’t done this since they graduated school.”

During the live-fire exercise, they work closely with the local firefighters, going into the burning room in two-man teams to suppress the flames. All the while the professionals are there alongside them, stressing communication and safety. Though only inside the burn room for barely a minute at a time, they come out after their first rotation dripping with sweat, but all smiling.

“Everyone that we’ve gotten so far is thrilled to death, because they never get to do that at their home station,” said Brewer.

“They’re getting to do what they signed up to do to start with, which is play firemen,” said Brewer. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a hundred degrees outside. They’re tickled to death to be out there doing it.”

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