My experience at Erhatec

At the beginning I want to explain what a Flash over or Roll over is. A fire needs three things oxygen heat and a combustible material. If you take one thing away it can´t burn anymore. So when there is a fire in a room and it runs out of oxygen but there is the heat and the burnable  gases,  when you open the door at this moment the fire gets a lot of oxygen. Now the fire and the whole room is nearly exploding with a lot of power and this is something you don't want. 

 Erhatec is a company near Stuttgart that is specialized on flash over trainings for fire departments. Two other guys from my fire department and I got the chance to do a two day course there on the28th and 29th of November this year. On the first day we started at 5:30am at the fire department . After a little stressful ride (we had a Navigation system but our car hasn´t had a cigarette liter so we couldn´t  use it) we arrived punctual at 8:00am at the company. It is situated on an former US-army base . 

 

Here you see the power of a Flash Over 

The course started with a two hour theoretical part and the instructor showed us some pictures of different types of Flash over's and how we can read the smoke . The rest of the morning they demonstrated us on a small model of a house how a flash over occurs. After lunch we geared up with our respirator and went in one of the containers the first time where they had made a fire. This was the first of 5 times we got in there and it was only to show us the temperature. On the ground were 50 degrees and on the ceiling 750 to 1000 degrees. They also showed us how it feels when someone is killing the fire wrong with too much water. After this we had 30 minutes break and then we went into the second container where we saw real flash and roll over  which are by the way look pretty awesome .

 On the next day we started in a container where they showed us, what we can do, when a flash over happens and that you don´t need a lot of water to get the fire out. This was really impressive for me when I see how much water we normally use. After lunch we geared up the last time. For our little exam we had to make groups of two and go in one of the containers and we had to control the situation. Behind every door could be a flash over or another surprise. 

 

Flash Over in one of the containers 

At the end I have to say, if you are a fire fighter and you get the chance to do one of this courses DO IT. It was the best course I have ever got  the chance to go. It was funny  and informative but also really hard body work which I felt in the evening when I nearly fell asleep at dinner.