Standing in the middle of a blazing fire was cool

OK, so for the past week, I was still at the Damage Control School. We learned about fire fighting on board a ship. We learned to use two different types of breathing apparatus. The first is called Chemox. This is worn on the front with rubber lungs and a metal canister that uses potassium super-oxide to create oxygen to breath with. The issue with this is that if you somehow "collapse" one of the lungs, you suddenly can't breath at all. This unit has been used in the Canadian Navy for over 50 years and is extremely out of date. Fortunately, it is now slowly being replaced by a "Drager" system which is what real fire fighters use. It employs an oxygen tank carried on the back. It is much more comfortable to wear, easier to use and you don't have to be scared about collapsing a lung.

For those who asked, I got 96% on the first two exams and 100% on the fire exam.

We went through a "smoke maze" which lead us through the trainer that is set up like the inside of a ship. We were in groups of 6 or 7. Once we were inside, either the smoke was so thick that you could not see your hand until it was directly in front of your face, or in some parts it was so dark and if you closed your eyes tightly and then opened them, there was absolutely no difference. It was really cool.

Then we had to do some real exercises with fire going on. We did this twice. The first time was going into a mess (sleeping area on ship) that was on fire and put it out with the hose. While we were trying to put out this fire, flash over occurred. This is where the flames suddenly grow across the ceiling to the point where it was pretty much directly over our heads; while the rest of the room was still in flames. The second one was where we had to also descend down a ship's hatch into a compartment below which was already on fire. I basically went down the ladder and stepped right into the fire. Then we had to advance further on the fire as it was spreading. At one point, the flames were on the floor only about 2 feet from my feet.

With the temperature of the fire and the small areas that we were in, when we stepped out, the amount of sweat was amazing, but the adrenaline rush prevented me from even noticing when I was dealing with the fire. It was a blast (not that I would want to do it for a living, so don't worry Cynthia).

Below is a picture which shows exactly what we were wearing for the exercises.