LYNNWOOD — It was three years ago when Edmonds firefighter Isaac Howard lost his sight in one eye during a training exercise.
The tragedy occured after an explosion tore through a live-fire training trailer he was working in as the volunteer deputy chief of the Gold Bar Fire Department.
Howard was seated in the trailer’s control booth at the time and was struck in the face by shards of glass from the observation window. Howard sustained facial fractures and damage to both eyes. Two other firefighters also suffered injuries in that explosion.
That Fireblast 451 Inc. live fire training trailer is gone, but a new one by the same manufacturer is in its place.
Despite the past accident, 10 fire departments have joined together again to finance and use what officials say is a newer, more advanced and safer training trailer.
The joint fire departments include: Lynnwood, Northshore (which covers Lake Forest Park), Shoreline, Bothell, Snohomish County Fire Districts 7 (which covers Mill Creek), 26 (covers Gold Bar) and District 5 along with Eastside Fire and Rescue, King County District 45 and Mercer Island.
Lynnwood Fire’s training officer, Capt. Bruce Forbes, said the new trailer is safer because it includes a computerized system which safeguards the training exercises.
For example, the old trailer had just manual controls. The new trailer has both computerized and some manual systems.
“But with this trailer the computer system will only allow those who have been through the special training to operate it,” he said, adding they also now only allow a limited amount of people from each department to be trained to operate it.
Forbes also said the system records each step of the training exercise, including who was operating it.
“That way we can tell exactly what was going on the whole time,” he said.
Along with those safety features, Forbes said, the system detects when the trailer is getting too hot, and if it does, it automatically shuts down the system.
Another precautionary device is the system’s maintenance check process.
“If you don’t go through all the steps to check it out, it won’t allow you to operate it,” he said.
The live fire training trailer allows firefighters to train on real fire scenarios at their own training facilities or fire department parking lot, like is the case in Lynnwood.
In addition to real fire emergencies, firefighters also do annual live fire training at the Washington State Patrol training facility and fire academy in North Bend. Edmonds Fire Department and Snohomish County Fire District 1 are included in the North Bend training but have chosen not to be part of the live fire training trailer.
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