Members of the Flastaff, Highlands, Summit and Pinewood fire departemnts take part in a ‘Train the Trainer’ session on how to use CCC’s new fire engine pump operations simulator. Courtesy photo.
FLAGSTAFF — Everything on the device shines fire-engine red and chrome. The pumps, gauges and hose fixtures seem real enough.
It’s like having a real fire engine in the classroom – except better in many aspects.
Coconino Community College now has the ability to offer new training to Fire Science students and continuing training to firefighters in the field on how to operate the water pumps on a fire engine. The college purchased a PumpOps Simulator entirely with the help of grant funding from the federal Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act.
“This simulator provides a very realistic experience in a college classroom that normally requires a live fire truck,” said Marc Goldberg, Fire Science program coordinator at CCC. “We can’t get the students on the fire trucks adequately to learn these skills … Students are better trained from day one.”
Goldberg added that before getting the simulator, pump training required a department fire truck to be available, which is a logistical difficulty as fire crews respond to calls in northern Arizona on a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week basis. Also, there was also the wasting of hundreds of gallons of water and the possibility of a student accidentally burning out a pump, which is a costly mistake for a $700,000 fire engine.
“This changes the game,” Goldberg said of the simulator.
The PumpOps simulator doesn’t use water and students and trainees can’t actually burn out a pump. Of course, they can simulate it – nowhere near as costly a proposition.
According to information from the manufacturer, FAAC, Inc., the simulator “is a full-size replica of a fire engine pump panel. Its realistic components and functionality provide safe, economical and highly realistic training on pump panel operation in a controlled and repeatable environment.”
In December, CCC was host to a two-day training with the simulator. Firefighters from area fire departments – Highlands, Summit Pinewood and Flagstaff – attended the “Train the Trainer” session to learn how to use the simulator and all of its features to teach students and current fire service personnel.
The PumpOps simulator will begin being used in the classroom at CCC this month, Goldberg said.
The Perkins Act was first authorized in 1984, and it was authorized again in 2006 and just recently in 2018 to provide quality education in the United States in order to bolster the economic development of the country.
Spring 2019 classes begin Monday, Jan. 14 at CCC. For more information about CCC’s Fire Science degree and certificate programs, visit www.coconino.edu/degrees-and-certificates. For more information about the Perkins Act, visit https://cte.ed.gov.