January 2023 we had a film crew visit from the EO TV show "Rachel falls in. A series of episodes in which Rachel Rosier looks in on social workers. The episode recorded during this staging at FireWare answers how firefighters search for people in a burning building and how to actually simulate fires. We showed that by using the FireWare office building, but how did we set up this staging? You can read about that in this portfolio report!
Creating realistic training environments for emergency responders is what we do at FireWare. These stagings always center on image and experience. And we can set this up in virtually any location, because we can stage non-destructively with the FireWare products. So it can also be done in our own premises in Wieringerwerf.
We were able to set up this staging in such a way that we were able to include a lot of teaching material ourselves for learning films, staging training and e-learning being developed. In the process, of course, this is an excellent opportunity to practice. The Wieringerwerf, Middenmeer and Wieringerwaard posts were able to run a nice deployment exercise with some switching moments. Ending up in a defensive outside deployment (preventing fire spread to adjacent compartment or neighboring objects) where the imaging is also correct is pretty cool.
The fire
An entire building on fire, you can imagine that a fire like this is quite difficult. This is therefore classified by the fire department as a "major fire. Where a "small fire" often involves a kitchenette or a bedroom, 1 fire engine with crew comes. For a "medium fire," 2 cars and 2 crews arrive, for example if the fire is or becomes too large for 1 crew, there is a problem with water extraction in a small fire, or to protect adjacent properties. A "large fire" often involves a multi-room fire, casualties and a spreading fire, as in this case. Then there will be 3 fire engines and squads for more striking power. This allows the property to be approached from multiple sides, including the roof.
The notification
The first report that came in to the control room was "fire," not that there was also a victim in the building or that the fire was spreading. The first units on the scene immediately saw that it was bigger than they could handle and scaled up to "big fire. The control room immediately sends more units to the scene, but it takes a while for those extra squads to arrive.
Normally, the fire department refers to this situation as a burndown scenario. The fire has already progressed to the point where the property cannot be saved and firefighters try to save what is not yet burning, such as adjacent parcels or, in the case of the FireWare property, the warehouse. There is no chance of any victims surviving in a building so badly burned, so the fire department will not risk people going inside to look for people. In real life, realistic staging would make the choice not to go inside, but for the television program we placed a victim in the building who needed to be rescued, so there was extra work for the units and for Rachel, because she went in with them for the rescue.
Whereas in similar situations we only have to set up a staging for the outside, so now we had to do the same for the inside, because a rescue is being done. Of course, indoor visibility was limited by the accumulated smoke layer, but the camera didn't like that much, so occasionally we left the smoke out for a few nice shots.
The FireSpot
How did we make it look realistic from the outside? Through the mighty FireSpot, one of our smoke machines and the operating manual developed by FireWare. This is the basis of any fire simulation, where we create the illusion of flames using a smoke machine and the FireSpot. We blow smoke against an object causing the smoke to rise. From behind the smoke cloud, we shine light into it, with which the combination of the moving smoke and light creates a flame effect from the viewpoint. We use this technique from trash fire to large fire. All flame simulation is based on this technique technology and we applied it behind every window of the building for this situation.
One problem, this looks nice from the outside, but not from the inside. In fact, from the other side, you see only an orange glow and no flame movement. Therefore, in this case, we also applied the technique inside the building and blew some extra smoke inside the building.
Do you want to know all about this? We have developed several staging trainings in which you will learn all about staging these types of situations.
Hybrid staging
Because the fire was spreading, we also simulated fire and smoke from the roof. For this we used real fire with gas-fired Vesta fire extinguishers, combined with smoke machines, because gas fire does not produce smoke. In large-scale staging for firefighters, like this one, nothing beats real flames anyway. And the great thing is, once you've seen real flames you subconsciously see the simulated flames and smoke as real too. Therefore, we try to apply this where we can. So super effective!
Team Digital Exploration
The Digital Reconnaissance Team also had its hands full during this simulation. They made an aerial assessment of the fire with a drone. There are images of this, of course! Team Digital Reconnaissance is a support team that supports emergency services by using drones, among other things. In doing so, they can contribute to a better overall picture of an incident. For example, they provide images of locations where emergency responders cannot safely access themselves. They do this for firefighting, emergency response, water accidents, collapse hazards and much more.
In any case, we can conclude that it was a great success for everyone!
