Plant Fire Department Case Study

Fire departments have a high operational load. Their training in theoretical basics and practical exercises is already robust in terms of process and organization. Compared to armed forces, the fire department does not usually have to deal with people, but with the forces of nature. Generally it can be stated that fire departments attach a lot of importance to their further training and safety and therefore the evaluation process of self-development has a high attentiveness.

Intended use

Firefighters have atypical to other forces such as police and military regular and repetitive deployment situations, which enables learning processes and integration of trainees in the deployment situations temporally and procedurally. Depending on the threat, there is the possibility to actively integrate trainees into the operational situation and to train them in different competencies, e.g. problem solving. For this reason, training fire departments have a great importance in the training, because they allow the direct confrontation with the operational situations under guidance. If possible, a real situation should always be used for trainees (regardless of the profession) to impart competencies, since the intensity and quality of the imparting of competencies, as well as the depth of imparting, is greatest here.

We know that: What you have seen is less internalized than what you have done.

However, there are locations which either do not allow professional opportunity or do not allow risk-free entry opportunity for the trainees. They are so dangerous, spatially unavailable, or so sensitive that only fully trained forces can assume the responsibility. We know the example in the household as well: we do not give a child of elementary school age the task of driving the family station wagon into the garage either.

Nevertheless, there is a need to proactively introduce trainees to the challenges of the future and enable them to gain confidence in their abilities.

At the same time, we are all trainees all the time, because life always has something new in store for us. Even very experienced firefighters must therefore not give in to routine. Part of professionalism is handling every situation with the greatest possible concentration to accomplish the mission, manage the situation and mitigate the damage.

PROBLEM

Nuclear waste repositories have the problem that their infrastructure consists of tunnels and underground spaces. These have very specific firefighting requirements. For example, regular firefighting equipment cannot simply be moved underground. Furthermore, radioactivity, smoke development and limitation of the resources for damage containment in case of an escalation of the situation play a very important role.

The operation of a repository prohibits active participation in, for example, fire extinguishing exercises or the creation of a leak of radioactive material in order to seal it for training purposes. The problem here is that, in contrast to a regular basement fire in an apartment building where the trainee in the attack squad can also take responsibility, this does not work in this type of special case. In the worst case, this results in an effect that we already know from armed response forces: A cognitive dissonance about what works and what doesn't, due to a lack of real-world experience.

Few people have even extinguished a fire in a nuclear waste repository, let alone seen one. Even the most experienced firefighters run the risk of spending their entire time on duty practicing the wrong tactics and forgetting a very important aspect that would be immediately clear and at least logically anticipated in a real operation. Training must not mutate into a formal service in which it is only assumed that the fire was extinguished under real circumstances on the basis of 90% practice artifices.

SOLUTION

Training in the XR. Due to the detailed representation of the environment, the trainee experiences a true-to-life immersion. Everything that is seen, felt and experienced can be transformed into reality. Especially processes, procedures and competences are the core. In the XR it is possible to simulate the different variances that go along with a situation within a very short time. This includes simulating fire physics.

If you want to use the XR for your training area, you have the option of using a Mobile Team Training System, for example. This is intended for permanent operation at a training location.

The Hypermobile Training System is particularly suitable for very mobile use. It combines fast assembly and disassembly with no restrictions in the training form and quality.

RRXR systems are particularly suitable for the acquisition of competencies in augmented reality.



Summary

XR technology closes the hole you didn't know existed. Once used, it outshines everything that has come before. The XR technology does not have to be used as a replacement, but as a complement to proven technologies in order to prepare for the difficult tasks in use without open flanks.