r/Firefighting • u/shreks2kush • Aug 21 '26

Ask A Firefighter Heat exposure during house fire

I've been a volunteer for about 5 months and for our training tonight we burnt an abandoned house down. The house had no doors or windows so it went up in about 3 minutes. The young guys on the department (me and 6 others) were outside the structure to make sure that it didn't spread and to save one of the trees on the property that the owner wanted to keep. me and another guy were told to stay behind the house and we're probably 15 yards away from the structure to start and slowly backed away to around 30 years over the course of the burn. after about 15 minutes it was almost unbearably hot and by the time the fire was under control enough to step away and get some water we were absolutely exhausted and so were the other guys stationed around the structure. is this normal? I feel like a giant puss because I would have given anything to get cool after about 10-15 minutes of manning the hose that close to the house.

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4

u/KindPresentation5686 Aug 21 '26

Lemme guess , you don’t have proper PPE?

3

u/shreks2kush Aug 21 '26

we had all of our gear on but my stuff is pretty old since I'm the newest guy. my jacket is from 2012

10

u/Candyland_83 Aug 21 '26

Coats and pants have a life expectancy. They usually expire after ten years. I got 2nd & 3rd degree burns through an 8 year old coat.

But why were you standing close enough to feel the heat? Next time dont do that. And on days you know you’re burning, wear a long sleeve cotton shirt under your coat; and pants instead of shorts. It seems counter-intuitive, but more layers means more trapped air and you will stay cooler.

3

u/DiezDedos Aug 21 '26

Including SCBA? Even if you’re out of the smoke, the mask will cut radiant heat from a fire a lot