TEEX Fire School - Then and Now

We leave the Georgia scorching heat on Friday and fly in to Houston Intercontinental Airport where the weather has cooled to a generous 101 degrees.  I grab my rental car and make the 1.5 hour drive over to College Station.  The closer I get to there, the higher the temperature climbs.  It’s now 106.  This is my 21^st year as a guest Instructor at the Fire school and boy has it changed over the years.

I know the drive by heart.  It used to be two lane roads with a maximum speed of 55 mph.  Now there are 4 lanes and a minimum speed of 80 mph (it seems). Twenty two years ago, there were only two hotels in College Station, the Ramada Inn and the Holiday Inn.  Next to the Holiday Inn stood the only restaurant in town, Bennigan’s. Back then the people of Bryan/College Station did not like firemen.  We would come to town, and even though as Industrial firemen we pumped the town with plenty of money to boost their economy, we were treated pretty badly. 

Thank goodness all that has changed and there are numerous restaurants, hotels and lots of friendly people.  It’s almost like home.    

As an Instructor, you registered on Saturday and faced the reality that you probably had to burn your prop that day to “test the waters” (or fire in this case) to anticipate what the students would encounter.  We supplied our own instructors to fuel the props and usually our own maintenance to repair the things that were broken. You waded through mud, rocks, fuel, sweat, and gunk to create a learning environment. After testing your prop, lunchtime rolled around and you sat and ate in the firehouse a catered lunch provided by Dooley-Tackaberry.  I must say, this is one of the best lunches I have ever had; fried catfish, rock shrimp and all the trimmings. And to this day, a new sponsor provides that same lunch annually.  I have often jokingly made the statement that if they ever stopped providing us that lunch, it would be my last year as an instructor.  I’m not so sure I’m joking. 

Monday came quickly and approximately 1500 students participated in the school.  There were about 20 sections of 40-50 students per section.  The instructors would stay all 4 days on the fire field while students alternated days on the field and classroom. I was 28 years old back then and thought nothing of burning huge fires for 8-10 hours a day for 4 days straight.

Most days back then you would have an injury of some sort (not reported, of course).  If you didn’t get burned then you weren’t participating.  I’ve lost eyebrows, half of a mustache, a boot, stickers off my helmet, and a face shield all because of tremendous heat and flames.

I remember one day, I was assigned to take students to the third deck of the prop.  We always ascended the north stairs with the wind in our face.  That meant high pressure propane fires blew directly towards you and attacked you as soon as you topped the stairs.  The heat was unbearable and some students would freeze right there and wouldn’t budge an inch.  As I moved my student team up the stairs past the second deck, and up to the top of the third floor stairs, we held back the roaring fire with our power cone of water while another set of students, hose line, and instructor made their way up behind us to control another leaking flange that roared at our backs.  I curled my water line manned with three students to the right parallel with the handrail. We left members from each hose line at every stairway landing to help feed fire hose up to us.  We started in to make our valve closure but as we got closer to the valve, I noticed my group of 4 students holding the hose line suddenly stop advancing.  I looked back behind me and our back-up hose line was retreating down the stairs.  We were in this alone.  The heat was now really becoming unbearable.  I could feel the pressurized fire behind me TAPPING me on the shoulder.  My students panicked and started to drop the hose line and run.  I had to react quickly or we would all be burnt to a crisp.  I put my arms on each side of the nozzle man and pinned him against the handrail so he had no where to go.  His feet still shuffled quickly although he wasn’t going anywhere.  I looked him directly in his eyes and above all the noise, fire, smoke, and water I yelled “OK, we are here and we are not going anywhere! If we drop this water we will all be badly burned!  I trust you to stay here with me and get us all out of this situation! I need you to hold a water pattern on this flange while I make the valve closure!  Do you understand?!?”  He looked at me with a little more determination in his eyes and said “Yes Sir!”  We adjusted the nozzle pattern to just the right width and he held the water just where it had to be.  I leaned forward, my life in his hands, and closed the valve and the fire went out.  Now we had to make the turn to close the one behind us!  

Those were the good old days. We do much more actual teaching now and much less trying to set the world on fire to put it out.  The school is much better and the knowledge and confidence the students gain is immeasurable.  There are plenty of great friends, great food, good times, and an excellent TEEX staff that makes sure we all have what we need to create the best training environment we can for the students.  I am very happy and proud to be a part of it.

If you have never attended or even visited, put it on your bucket list.  It is an event that you will never forget.

Below are just a few pictures from this year’s (2011) TEEX Industrial Fire School.