Experience of Being a Firefighter in An Oil Spill Simulation
Six completed modules in just three months have already gotten me excited towards the end of Diploma Pascasiswazah Pengurusan Awam (DPA). The modules in DPA were divided into two which are academic and outdoor. For Infinitus, we have only been to one outdoor module which was Fire and Rescue module held at Kuala Kubu Bharu (KKB). Personally, I have always enjoyed doing activities like wall climbing or abseiling rather than sitting in class listening to lectures although I ended up with sunburn, rashes and dry skin on my face. It was all worth it. The whole time I was in the Fire and Rescue Academy, it comes to my attention that there is no ‘I’ in ‘TEAM’ and similarly there is no ‘I’ in ‘WE’. Before I proceed to narrate on all the thrilling activities we did in KKB, I wish to highlight when participating in an outdoor module I learned three valuable lessons which were teamwork is the key to success, cooperation tightens the bond among cadets and challenging activities toughens me up physically and mentally.
Among the activities that I can vividly remember was doing the Oil Spill. The main purpose of it was to improve knowledge and skills in combating fire. Well, easier said than done, we had to wear the Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) that comprises of three main components: a high pressure tank, a pressure regulator and an inhalation connection. Overall, one set of SCBA weighs around 11 kilograms. We were told that all firefighters had gone through this simulation and with our zero experience I never thought that we had to do it as well. The whole simulation took place at night according to our platoons. I was in platoon D, so we were the last one to have done it. We used a buddy system where someone from a different platoon will help us to suit up.
We were divided into four groups with a leader that will hold the nozzle. I was in the attacker team and we really had to get close to the fire in order to prevent it from spreading wild through air. The fire needs to be contained and using the correct method, the nozzle was set up to blast the water wide (can see from the attached picture). All members from the group must work as a team in terms of movements like moving left or right and even moving forward need to be synchronized. Even though 
During that time, we were inside the fire, keeping ourselves together and wanted to get it over with I was just counting on my leader to hang in there because I know it must have been very hot for him. There was fire everywhere. There was fire in front of me, on my right and my left side. That was my first experience ever being so close to a huge fire and felt the intense heat coming out from it. In a normal circumstance, I usually hear or see firefighters bravely entering a burning building on television whenever they need to rescue people but now I truly understand how does it feel like to fight fire with water.
In a nutshell, there are other fascinating activities that we did during the Fire and Rescue module that got us to apprususeciate every firefighter in the world.
by Yazmalina Binti Yaacob
Infinitus, Imperius.
