Dearbhaile loves learning new skills, particularly when it comes to learning something that can help people in tricky situations – and what better way to do so than knowing what to do in the event of a fire? That’s why she decided to complete a training to become a fire warden.
What do you do when there’s a fire? How do you safely evacuate people from a building during a fire? And how do you use a fire hose, a fire blanket, and fire extinguishers? Did you know that there are about 6 different types of extinguishers for different types of fires?! All those things are subject matters of the fire warden course.
Before getting started with the training, which conveniently took place right across the road from the office and was five hours, all course participants had to complete an online course and a theoretical assessment. Then, the most exciting part of the training began. “With the help of Virtual Reality, we were put into different real-life scenarios where a fire could break out, for example, a computer in the office, a BBQ in the back garden, or even the engine of a car. We then used a dummy fire extinguisher to put out the fire with sweeping motions along the base of the fire. That was so cool!” Finally, the group went to see the fire control room for the main building and ran through a fake drill where they checked that fire alarms on different levels of the building were working and called the Chief Fire Warden to effectively communicate the situation.
During the training, Dearbhaile also encountered some challenges, as knowing exactly what to do in the event of a fire and responding quickly seemed quite overwhelming at first – especially having in mind that everyone relies on fire wardens when there’s a fire. However, the group’s trainer, Jason from Safety-101, did a great job in discussing different scenarios as well as answering all questions putting the minds of all at ease.
So, what’s Dearbhaile’s conclusion? “I really benefitted from the training as I was able to put what I had learned into use only a couple of hours later, when the fire alarm in the building went off and we were able to safely evacuate everyone to the assembly point,” she explained. “The training was interesting and as a fire warden you can help others as well as yourself. Knowing what to do could ultimately save a life.” A bonus point? “The virtual reality was a lot of fun!”.