Firefighters beat wrecking ball
Publication: Vail Daily; Date:
09/03/2004
By Scott N. Miller
VAIL - Most buildings set for a date
with the wrecking ball come down pretty quickly. Before
the Sonnenalp Swiss Hotel in Vail comes down, though,
it's being picked at in the name of public safety.
For the past few weeks, Vail firefighters
have been training in the old Swiss Hotel, which is
being razed this summer and fall to make way for a
new complex of condominiums and shops. Firefighters
have been given free reign to train in the building,
which, in essence, means busting up the place.
Last week, crews were "roof training,"
learning the proper way to punch holes in the top
of a structure to vent fire from the rooms below.
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Vail
Firefighters Matt Holmes
and Roxy Ligrani tear wood shingles
off the top of the Swiss Haus in Vail
Wednesday to cut a ventilation hole duirng
a training exercise. The Swiss Haus is
being taken torn down to make room for
new condo's and shops.
Bret Hartman/Vail Daily |
The process isn't as simple as it
sounds. After tearing off shingles, firefighters have
to find the right spot to cut, avoiding roof supports.
The department's "resident" firefighters
- academy graduates who serve mostly unpaid internships
in exchange for housing - hacked and chopped determinedly
at the roof, creating gaping holes.
The holes in the roof match the ones
in the walls on the inside of the hotel, where firefighters
have learned the finer points of hotel construction
by tearing big chunks of it apart.
Wandering through the hallways of
the hotel, debris is scattered, glass is shattered,
and doors have been knocked off their hinges. It looks
like vandalism on steroids.
"This is really a great opportunity
for us," resident firefighter Roxy Ligrani said. "We
can practice different scenarios and learn about different
kinds of construction."
And hotels, especially ones of the
Swiss Hotel's caliber, are built differently. Drywall
is thicker, with soundproofing insulation between
rooms.
"You can usually kick through drywall
in a house. This stuff is a lot harder to get through,"
Fire Technician Jim Jones said, giving a wall a solid
shot with his boot to demonstrate.
Jones, who has been running the training
sessions, said the opportunity to actually kick, cut
and smash around a building is a rare experience for
the younger firefighters and veterans.
"Without these structures to work
in, it can take years to get the knowledge these kids
are getting here," Jones said. The training is good
for veterans, too, Jones said, since they get to practice
their own skills, as well as explain the finer points
of big-building firefighting to their younger peers.
And there are plenty of fine points
to learn, Jones said. Running a hose through a hallway
sounds simple, but there's a lot to know.
Debris can hang up or puncture a hose,
Jones said. Knowing that, and knowing to always move
debris to just one side of a hall is something that
can come up in classrooms, but until someone actually
tries toting hose through a building, they don't really
understand why the little things are important, Jones
said.
Firefighters - and sometimes their
bosses - also need to know what works and what doesn't
out at a fire scene.
"I'd rather break equipment in training
than find out it doesn't work at an incident," Vail
Fire Chief John Gulick said.
Between the Swiss Hotel and the Vail
Village Inn, Vail's firefighters have had the opportunity
to learn the tricks of big building fires before they
have to fight one. It's a special chance to learn,
Jones said.
"We're just really grateful to the
owners of those buildings they let us do this," Jones
said.
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