Confined space.

Last (hot) July, me and Harvey attended another one day course in confined space. The course was held at Headquarters and, it is as it sounds, small spaces, big people!

When we got there, I was pleased to see Dan aka ‘Danielle’ who I did all my initial courses with. It’s always good to see friends again, and Dan is just amazingly funny, so I knew that the day wouldn’t drag.

It wasn’t going to do that anyway, there was so much to cover in a short space of time that our brains were full of information in the first hour.

There were some amusing times during the day, mainly being attached to Dan being pulled underneath the classroom tables! I am not joking, of all the people to pair up for this.

There were also some tough times for some, not everyone is at home in small spaces, and the bigger you are, the worse it is.

The infamous ‘smartie tube’ was a worry to some, it’s basically a small plastic buried pipe that you have to crawl through wearing Breathing Apparatus (BA) to get to another small area where we practiced the ‘entrapment procedure.’

I didn’t have any issues in the smartie tube as I am quite small, and thankful for it too, as it is dark, and as the course says – confined! If you have issues with small spaces and the dark, it’s maybe a good idea to get used to those environments a little before doing this course, but as usual, we are a team, and anyone who had any worries was comforted by the rest of us, encouraged and helped where necessary. The Fire Service is all about Team Work, you are never on your own.

Once in the entrapment area, we were timed as to how long our air would last in an emergency situation. Bearing in mind, we weren’t really in trouble, so keeping our breathing steady and remaining calm wasn’t difficult. I can imagine in a real situation, our air wouldn’t last half as long. Seems my breathing techniques and self-hypnosis paid off and I managed to conserve a lot more air than most. But, as I said in a different situation….who knows?!

I’m not going to write too much about the next part of the course, I want those who are reading this, ahead of joining, to experience the surprise, but as challenging as the afternoon was, it was also really good. Another fine course from the Academy, superb trainers and a lot more learnt to add to the repertoire. Fire and Rescue, so much to learn, it’s not all about squirting water you know!