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mediately by way of special sliding doors. The average time through the maze is 12 to 15 minutes. The short time record is si* minutes and 20 seconds and the long time mark 31 minutes. If the trainee takes much more than the average, to get through the warning bell signaling that air supply is almost exhausted will sound before the exit door is reached.
Repeatedly, though, the instructors emphasized that the mask must stay in place even when the air is gone. “If you come out with your face piece off, you’ve failed! You’re dead!” they stressed. If the air is depleted, the face mask still provides protection from toxic fumes and from heat that can sear the inside of the lungs, causing permanent damage, the experts noted.
When the air in the tanks is gone, the instructors told their students, get down on the floor, pull the end of your hose from the tank and stick it inside your coat before drawing a breath so that wah’ts pulled into the lungs will at least be filtered through the layers of cloth. “If there’s fresh air in a burning building, it will be on the floor,” they stressed again and again.
Bumps, bangs, low air warning bells and muffled voices escaped from the trailer but the novice fire fighters made it through with no serious mishaps: hot. sweaty and tired but ready for their "I Survived The Maze" tee-shirts.
I stuck with tennis shoes, blue jeans and a blouse on my tour. Maneuvering was much easier without 50 to 60 pounds of gear. A couple of times, my guides flicked off the lights to give me an idea of what real dark is all about but for most of the trip, I just squeezed my eyes shut. And I detoured around the last ten foot drop. It was hardly enough to qualify for the coveted tee-shirt but plenty to give me an idea of what it takes to be a fire fighter.
In the fire hall, a class room session in fire safety focused on the life-saving five
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