Dark as Night

Our hands on training exercises were conducted in complete darkness. Stress testing. Emotional stability testing. Could we keep it together without the sense of sight?

We had a number of timed trials to see if we could get into our bunker gear with respirator on in two and a half minutes. After we were sufficiently sweaty, we got to try the maze. Captain Perez, our instructor for PT and various other skills, went through this very same maze 14 years ago. It's constructed of wobbly old 2x6s, plywood and drywall. Each of the two section is approximately 20' long. It was painted yellow, but that doesn't matter much in the dark. We were required to follow the lifeline (a thick black rope) from one end to the other in less than 20 minutes. In teams of two we donned the blacked out facepieces and on our hands and knees followed one another through the maze of hanging ropes which simulating downed electrical wires, 24" rafters, attic holes and miniature doors. Lots of squeezing through confined spaces with an air cylinder strapped to you back. No problem. I didn't even run out of air.

In the afternoon we focused on a more difficult challenge: locate a dummy inside a burn building and bring it back out. Again, the masks were blacked out and we had to stay low so we didn't stick our heads in the simulated cloud of superheated gasses. The alleged purpose of this exercise was two fold; first find the victim by crawling through the maze in complete darkness all the while keeping physical contact with your team and using the walls as a guide. Second, you need to successfully complete the mission without taking off your mask (assumed death by asphyxiation) and before you tank runs out (which holds approximately 25min depending on how fast you're breathing.) We all died.

We were separated only briefly after we found our victim. It was enough time for one of the instructors to deem our team leader dead by disorientation. His PASS device went off, and off and off. Through the shrieking of his PASS and the instructors banging things off the metal walls and tables we attempted to communicate. No luck. Were were separated, again. I died. Faced with the insurmountable task of dragging three bodies out of a pitch black shipping container the instructors eventually took pity on the surviving member of our team and ended the scenario.

Later it was communicated to us that the most important skill learned here was never take off your mask. Ever. And we didn't, so I guess it's not all that bad being dead. Lesson learned.

It's getting a hell of a lot more fun around here.