SCBA - What is it?

Thanks Construction Technology for the use of House 22!

During the past several weeks, students enrolled in the Fire-Rescue-EMS curriculum have been training on the use of SCBA - which stands for self-contained breathing apparatus. 

SCBA is a critical and essential piece of their personal protective equipment.  As the students become more and more familiar with the apparatus, and more confident wearing it, they are eventually taught special lifesaving procedures and techniques which can be used in extreme life-threatening circumstances. 

One such technique is called the "low-profile swim technique" that allows firefighters (no matter how large they may be) to fit through the 16" space between wall studs while wearing all their personal protective equipment.  Most new homes have walls built of drywall or sheet rock.  If conditions deteriorate in a room that firefighters are in, and there is no other means of escape, they are taught to make a hole in the wall and crawl through to the other side for survival. 

This all has to be accomplished while wearing their SCBA to protect their lungs and respiratory tract from the super-heated air and toxic gases that are present in fires.  Once a hole is created in the wall, firefighters center their SCBA in the space and then use a swim technique (similar to a backstroke) to get through to the next room. 

While this procedure is seldom or rarely used, firefighters must know how to perform it should the need arise.  Pictured are KACC students practicing this technique at the house that is being built by the Building Construction students at KACC