Training to Answer the 911 Call - Part 2

Group Editor Marty Kauchak completes his review of simulation and training activities for fire fighters.

The FAAC and FLAIM products highlighted in this series’ Part 1 report are a sample of the increasingly capable technologies entering fire fighters’ training organizations in the government and adjacent sectors. Elsewhere, lead-edge technologies, including AI, and more rigorous capabilities, including networking, are available in other offerings. A third product in this series, ThoroughTec’s Simulation’s (ThoroughTec) CYBERDRIVE ARFF Simulator, is another datum point of the quick-paced evolution of training for professionals in this high-risk profession.

Advanced Training for Aircraft Rescue & Firefighting Operators

ThoroughTec’s CYBERDRIVE ARFF Simulators are the perfect solution for organizations looking to dramatically increase ARFF operational readiness while reducing associated costs, according to David Cooke, vice president of Corporate Development, at the company.

Cooke offered, early-on, the business case to invest in this simulator, noting traditional training methods suffer from novice operator safety concerns, rising fuel prices, emissions, wear-and-tear, and the practical limitations of live fire training.

He added, “Simulator-based ARFF training overcomes all these constraints to offer a safe, efficient, and cost-effective method of developing operator proficiency and maintaining crew readiness.”

ThoroughTec’s simulators are available in two ‘Base Unit’ configurations, both offering exactly the same training features and capabilities, but cater to differing customer infrastructural needs. The first option is a free-standing containerized configuration, which is easily transported by rail, sea or road to the customer’s training location.

Cooke pointed out, “This unit is designed to provide a ruggedized, self-contained training environment for clients with little or no pre-existing infrastructure. The unit is also housed in an IP55-rated, 6m [20ft] ISO [International Organization for Standardization] container, which is both thermally and acoustically insulated, fully air-conditioned, and protected from water and dust ingress. The second option is a pre-fabricated system designed to be assembled and housed within a dedicated classroom environment at airports or training schools.”

Another commonality among high-risk sectors training systems emerges from ThoroughTec’s statement that CYBERDRIVE ARFF simulators are considered high-fidelity, full-mission simulators, “meaning that they provide the highest possible level of realism and an ability to perform virtually ALL of the roles and functions found on the actual ARFF equipment, relieving those vehicles of that training burden and its associated costs and thereby improving the return on investment for both simulator and vehicle.”

In this instance, Cooke noted “High-fidelity, full-mission simulators must incorporate a six degree-of-freedom, military-grade motion platform; panoramic, 270° high-definition projected displays; a full replicated vehicle cabin including all OEM operator instruments and controls. Finally, a dual-screen instructor station and intuitive software training tools allow instructors to create highly customizable exercises, monitor operator performance in real time and automatically record the sessions for post-mission debriefing. Being able to review the vehicle’s sub-systems, situation parameters and view a ‘live’ 3D After-Action Review of events is crucial to helping operators understand where mistakes were made and how they might be remedied.”

The ARFF Base Units contain the simulator’s foundational computing, visual, audio and motion feedback systems, and can, in turn, accommodate any number of modular, interchangeable replicated cabs, for each vehicle being simulated. “This architecture allows airport fire departments with mixed ARFF fleets to simulate multiple vehicle types within a single simulator; a significant cost saving and unique feature of our product,” the industry subject matter expert added.

Peering down further into the product’s technology underpinnings, in terms of software features, all CYBERDRIVE ARFF simulators are delivered with a generic virtual airport environment, however customized virtual airports can be developed to represent the customers actual operating environment.

Cooke continued, “Advanced 3D visualization and artificial intelligence then replicates that particular airport’s infrastructure, runways, flight operations and ground movements, as well as all ancillary airport traffic so that simulator training scenarios become as realistic as possible.”

Further bolstering the simulator’s scenario fidelity, a wide range of aircraft from small helicopters and single-prop airplanes, through to the largest passenger jets, each with their own incident and fire types are also simulated. Instructors have complete control over fire and incident types, locations and difficulty, the executive explained and continued, “Throw in the variable wind and weather conditions and even the most experienced firefighters will be challenged!”

ThoroughTec is adding additional rigor to training audience’s events. Cooke noted that at the touch of a button, firefighters can also be exposed to a multitude of equipment faults or scenarios, such as pump failures and tire blowouts, to test their ability to adapt to changing conditions and which cannot be safely or effectively done on the real vehicle.

As this article was published, ThoroughTec reported the first iterations of ARFF simulators have been deployed at military air bases in South Africa where the simulators have resulted in significant savings of both time and money, while also increasing training hours without compromising flight operations. Cooke further reflected, “These particular systems have been customized to cater for military-specific training scenarios, as well as civil aviation incidents. Taking the customization a step further, they also included an off-road driving course where operators can ‘get to grips’ with operating their ARFF vehicles in the sort of challenging conditions typical of military deployments. This is of particular relevance given the payload instability and the high center of gravity associated with ARFF vehicles.”

ThoroughTec’s simulators are available in two ‘Base Unit’ configurations, both offering exactly the same training features and capabilities, but cater to differing customer infrastructural needs. The first option is a free-standing containerized configuration, which is easily transported by rail, sea or road to the customer’s training location. Image credit: ThoroughTec.

Sector ROIs

Simulation and training companies are offering their current and prospective fire service customers with a number of compelling returns on investments (ROIs) to integrate their products in firefighters’ training programs. The ROIs mentioned earlier on, and additional ones below, mirror, quite well, efficiencies gained in other high risk sectors’ enterprises.

FAAC’s Deakins, noted his company calls its simulators, introduced in Part 1, “liability reduction tools.” While their use will reduce a department or other agency’s liability by helping to decrease fire apparatus accidents and related incidents, this simulator also provides other specific cost and other resource avoidance outcomes. A short list includes not using actual fire equipment and personnel for training, not having to as frequently obtain areas for live fire training, and allowing the learning audience to train to their organization’s policies and standards.

FLAIM’s Mullins also recalled, that to train a firefighter effectively requires practical, physical training. “The industry challenge is the limited access to physical live fire training structures. Structural live fire simulations can cost $millions to build, $thousands to run, they require a minimum of seven trainers on site, medical attendees and increasingly local authority permits.”

He further cited the NFPA has recorded more than 90 firefighter fatalities during live fire training in a ten-year period to 2018, more recently, the industry is facing increased environmental pressure to not discharge foams in fire practice training due to PFAS [Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances] contamination.

He added, “Live fire training also increases the firefighter exposure to toxic carcinogens. According to our research we estimate live fire training to cost between $1,000 and $5,000 per firefighter per day.” This expense compares and contrasts with the company’s statement, that based on a five-year total life cost, “a FLAIM Trainer investment is $60,000 per system including full life warranty, license and subscription to quarterly software updates.”

Mullins added, “Assuming the training department can utilize the system for a minimum of 1,000 hours per annum you can deliver training for $12 per hour or less than $100 per day!”

Back at ThoroughTec, Cooke noted one of CYBERDRIVE ARFF’s most lauded capabilities is the ability to train using foam or other extinguishing agents, which is prohibited for use in training in some regions. He added, “In the simulator, firefighters can train 24/7 with water and foam without any safety or environmental concerns and associated wear-and-tear costs, while the real equipment sits at the ready for deployment at a moment’s notice.”

On the Horizon

S&T industry providers are making available even more capable training systems and products for fire service training organizations. Similar to training devices in the military, civil aviation and other sectors, products supporting the fire-fighting community have dynamic, and not static, technology baselines.

Mullins first emphasized FLAIM Trainer releases new software updates quarterly with the company providing an online customer portal for customers to register and release the latest software download. “Our product roadmap includes a broad range of biometrics, including incorporating markers such as eye movement, heart rate, ECG [Electrocardiogram], body temperature, workload and stress. We constantly stive to update our fire physics modelling of fire, water, smoke and foam behavior to replicate real world, complex scenarios,” he noted and continued, “We’re adding fire behavior’s such as ventilation techniques and working with data sets from key agencies such as UL [Underwriters Laboratories], NIST [National Institute of Standards and Technology], NFPA and others, to ensure we remain market leader in virtual fire physics.”

Further, FLAIM expects to launch its next new product for high-risk, multi-user scenarios which enables collaborative training in first-half 2021. Mullins emphasized, “This is especially important for multi-agency response events, allowing each agency to collaborate from their separate locations in a single learning experience. This product will enable an unlimited number of remote trainees training in the one virtual environment.”

And finally, FLAIM will soon commence alpha phase development of FLAIM’s Learning Record System (LRS) that will enhance the ability to capture, record and report on the learning outcomes to enable students to develop a continuing education and organizations to improve their safety compliance.

Similarly, Cooke noted his company’s “basic” CYBERDRIVE ARFF simulator is already an advanced high-fidelity system, but ThoroughTec is always looking to enhance and improve the product where it can. A recent example of that is the addition of a networked training capability to its simulators. “As we all know, airport firefighting is rarely a single person effort and rather requires a carefully synchronized, multi-vehicle approach to be most effective,” Cooke pointed out and concluded, “The simulators work on this premise too and are networked to allow multiple human operated ARFF simulators to work in unison within the same virtual scenario, to effectively manage the incident. We are also looking to add crisis management and incident command training capabilities to these networked simulators in order to create a full incident response training suite.”

All of these products can be integrated under ThoroughTec’s proprietary WX Training Management System (TMS), which has the capabilities to incorporate real vehicle usage data with targeted simulator training interventions by using our analytics technology.

Beyond this Quick Look

The products and community insights presented in this two-part feature article are but a glimpse of the quick-paced activities occurring in fire service training enterprises. SCT looks forward to highlighting other S&T developments in the upcoming months.