Avon IN Firefighters, Students Analyze Search, Rescue Times

For the first time, students from Avon High School participated in a fire department training exercise in an effort to analyze search and rescue times.

“The kids are collecting data on how long it takes for the firefighters to locate and rescue a victim," AHS AP statistics teacher Amanda Leahy said. "We’re trying to show, using statistics, that one method is significantly shorter or longer than the other.”

Three students stood inside a home, timing how long it took firefighters to reach them; two students stood outside, timing how long it took to see the victim rescued; and Lahey timed the entire process.

Firefighters from Brownsburg, Avon and Plainfield participated in the exercise. Three search and rescue drills were conducted.

“Typically, when we search a residence for a victim, we’ll bring them back out the front door where we came in," explained Avon Washington Township Division chief of Training John Shafer. "We’re using the students to get true facts about how long it takes to do a task. They’ll go in the traditional way, take the victim back out the front door, then they’ll do an alternative method going in through the front door, isolate the room, then go to the window, let the smoke out and take the victim out the window. Finally, we’ll go in through the window and take the victim back out the window.”

Shafer said firefighters are looking at it from a victim’s perspective.

“We wear air in the fire and the victim doesn’t have air," he said. "What is the quickest and most efficient way of getting that victim to fresh air? Fires today versus 20 or 30 years ago grow about eight to 10 times faster because of all the plastics. That’s why we tell people to sleep with the doors closed. They aren’t really hotter, they just go much faster. That’s why you get trapped and can’t get out.”

Not only are students learning about statistics, but some of the approximate 66 students participating this week also got a chance to see what it’s like inside a fire simulation.

Sam Richmond and Colton Scott were two of the students standing inside the home to time how long it took for firefighters to reach them.

“I couldn’t really see," Richmond said. "All I saw was lights and someone yelling. There were all these guys in the same room and I only saw one silhouette.”

Scott added, “It was really disorienting in the smoke. You don’t know your directions like you think you would. It is kinda scary.”

Once fire crews have participated in the training and students have recorded the data, the class will resume after spring break and make sense of the information gathered.

“Most of the time in class, we’re using M&Ms or dice or something like that," Leahy said. "This is a legitimate thing that could really make a difference. We’ve been collecting data for several days and we’re going to put all this data together to make one sample. We’ve been learning about how to do a statistical test over this kind of data and now we have real data and are trying to answer a real question.”

If the process works well, she said, the partnership will continue.

“The fire department doesn’t have the extra manpower to stand here and time their training and we have the knowledge to figure out the statistics, but obviously we don’t have their expertise, getting in and out of the house as quickly as possible, so hopefully, we can help each other,” Leahy said.

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