Sanming Modern Practical Firefighting Training Center
From March 18th to the 22nd I was privileged to attend the International Fireground Survival Championship and 1st International Firefighter Workshop China at the Sanming Modern Practical Firefighting Training Center in Sanming, China.
The Training Center
The Sanming Fire Department runs the Sanming Modern Practical Fire Training Center. The training center has wide ranging facilities including live fire training props, an extensive urban search and rescue training area inclusive of extensive state of the art classroom facilities, simulated collapsed buildings, swiftwater training facility and swimming pool, indoor and outdoor rope rescue training facilities, and a kennel for over 100 search and rescue K9s. The Sanming Fire Department has plans for continued development and expansion of the training area.
Fireground Survival Championship
The fireground survival championship was included of two events, first was the Chinese Championship and second was the international championship with teams representing Spain, France, Thailand, Korea, Portugal, Germany, Chile, and Belgium.
The international competition emphasized team-based firefighter survival and rescue skills in a structural firefighting context over two days. Events included:
- Navigating a maze with multiple obstacles and rescuing a downed firefighter.
- Rescue from a through a basement window.
- Rescue through a window (Denver Drill).
- Rescue from a basement through a hole in the floor (Nance Drill).
Sanming Modern Practical Firefighting Training Center Photos.
Sanming Modern Practical Firefighting Training Center Photos.
The ranking of the top three teams at the end of the competition were:
- Spain
- Portugal
- France
While this was a competition, the participants were all focused on learning and sharing their knowledge and skills!
International Firefighter Workshop
Friday, March 21, John McDonough and Lucas Garden provided a classroom and practical session on compartment fire behavior for Chinese firefighters and fire officers. This session offered a fantastic opportunity for sharing information between fire behavior and firefighting instructors.
On Saturday, March 22nd, participants had the opportunity to take part in ten presentations by leading fire service professionals from around the world.
Sanming Modern Practical Firefighting Training Center Photo
Presentations included:
- Tunnel Firefighting-Shan Raffel, Australia.
- Firefighter Cancer Prevention and Occupational Hygiene-Szymon Kokot, Poland.
- The date is 1987. If I had the chance, what would I tell my younger self-John McDonough, Australia.
- The Firefighter Mayday Program, The Story-Pieter Maes, Belgium.
- Craftsmanship Builds Dreams, Science and Technology-Yang Guojian, China.
- Rapid Intervention, Is Our Approach Resilient-Thomas Gruber, Germany.
- Traveling Fires and Their Impact-Yusef Dogan Gurer, Türkiye.
- Leadership-Meysam Chegni, Iran.
- New Energy Battery Extinguishing System-Ruan Lijiang, China.
- Fireground Decision-Making: Thinking Like and Incident Commander-Ed Hartin, USA.
The Big Takeaway
The famous quote from the movie Backdraft “The funny thing about firemen is… night and day they are always firemen” was one of the biggest takeaways from the competition and workshop. Firefighters from around the world share a bond transcending borders and politics.
Sanming Modern Practical Firefighting Training Center Photo.
While there is a great deal of divisiveness and polarization throughout the world today, there was none between any of the participants and presenters. Our focus was on collegiality and working to improve the fire and rescue services around the world to better serve our communities. It was energizing and reaffirmed my faith in the brother and sisterhood of the fire service!
Thanks to Howie Cheung if FILO & the staff of the Sanming Practical Fire Training Center for their support and the tremendous effort in organizing and logistical support for this event!