The most grueling Day

So today we applied what we learned in class yesterday. We are outside. It’s hot, the humidity is making me sweat profusely in my street clothes. It is now time to put the Fire pants, Boots, thermal hood, mask, helmet, oxygen tanks and gloves on.

Our first task is search and rescue. I already feel like I’m suffocating and I haven’t even locked my oxygen hose to my mask yet. The oxygen is fed on demand. So it only disperses oxygen when I take a breath. My good friend whom I’ve been in class with for 5 days, is feeling panicky…claustrophobic. I try to help calm her down as it’s our turn to go in to the dark, smoke filled room simulating a room on a boat. She pulls it together and we go in. I’m crawling on the floor, following my hand down the wall on my left. My 2 team members are hanging on to my pant leg with one arm and sweeping the floor as we crawl, looking for bodies. I find one. We drag the victim back to the door we came in. It’s a success! However my friend is in tears. She is having a panic attack and won’t relax until that mask is off and she can breath normally. The next task is simulating a fire in cabin. They tell us the room will only get up to 250 degrees. My clothes are soaked wet from sweat and I’m having to calm my breathing before we go in. We go in. The fire is bright and hot. We all get down on our knees to escape the heat that is rising. We are packed like sardines as we listen to our instructor talk about the stage of the fire, our escape routes etc. Now I feel the oxygen that I’m breathing in is warm, which feels more suffocating. I start to panic. I focus on my breathing for about 5 minutes, but it isn’t working. My body is in full panic mode. I can’t stand because I’m surrounded by 11 people on their knees wearing tanks. That makes my panic worse. I’m gonna lose it, so i wave my hands to the instructor and explain I’m losing it. He tells me to stand and go to the back of the group with the other instructor who was already calming my friend. I stood there, with my eyes closed doing the calming breathing exercise we learned earlier in the week. It’s finally time to put the fire out. Yay, it will cool off..Ha Ha. Water makes steam which makes everything hotter. I think I’m gonna pass out. I won’t let myself run and not finish so I decided to just let myself pass out! I made it through without passing out but could not wait to get to a safe place to take that damn mask off and get a breath of fresh air. And this was all before lunch, we weren’t even half way through our day! I finished the course and received my cert. Duly noted that this will not be a strength on my resume!