How do you train for your job? Some of today’s more high risk jobs only provide experience through dangerous on the site training. Recently, the fire department in Yuma Arizona has built a way to train their firefighters with out putting them into dangerous situations. Their new firefighter simulator uses a basic digital projector and projection screen. The simulator room also has a mock vehicle which was made from a truck given to the department by the US Border Patrol. “It is a broad-based learning tool with applications for almost everyone in the department,” said YFD spokesman Mike Erfert. “This allows us to provide the experience without having to actually go to the scene of fire.” The simulator has many different situations from small car fires to catastrophic disasters and even major emergency events like hazardous material releases and mass casualty incidents. The simulator not only recreates typical house fires, but also allows the firefighters to upload pictures from local buildings and homes to study how they would approach the building if it ever was the focus of an incident. The YFD plans to build and improve the simulator to include walk-through buildings, video of fire crews responding and many other useful tools that will help train their crews.

[via YumaSun]

This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 11:36 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.