SANTA BARBARA,Calif. -- Santa Barbara City firefighters lit a one-story building on fire to test out a new technique in battling fires.
Firefighters are implementing the use of fans to vent a structure while it's burning.
They typically used the fans once the fire is out but have found when used the correct way, the fans can help battle flames.
"What we have done differently now is changed from removing the smoke after the fire...using the fan to pressurize the structure to create and exhaust before we go inside," says Santa Barbara City Fire Captain Brian Porter.
"This allows us to move fresh, cold air inside. You can actually take the temperature inside from 600 to 60 degrees within seconds."
Firefighters built a one-story structure last week for this very training. The cost totaled about $5,000 which came from the department's training budget and donations.
It's a technique developed by Los Angeles City Fire and has gained traction in other departments as far away as Salt Lake City, Utah. Santa Barbara City Fire is now training so they can start using it in real situations and may also teach the technique to neighboring stations. One major point of this technique is using exhaust points.
Before entering a building, Firefighters create openings through windows.
You can think of it like a chimney on the side of a house.
The fan pushes all the smoke and heat out of these openings.
"This helps us as we make our attack inside to have a nice, clear path as we go into the structure, (makes) our visibility better," says Porter.
The crews conducted about 10 successful training runs.
They will try to keep the structure for future training runs and hope to have it in March for the next Firefighters' Academy class.
