The BullEx Digital Fire Training System in action, allowing firefighters to safely train using as close to real-life scenarios as possible. (Friso McKenzie/Qualicum Beach Fire Rescue)

By Jordan Davidson

hot tech

Qualicum Beach Fire Rescue’s getting new state-of-the-art digital fire training system

Feb 25, 2023 | 6:16 AM

QUALICUM BEACH — A mid-Island fire department is about to update its equipment to the digital age with a cool new way to simulate real-life structure fires.

$90,000 was provided to the Qualicum Beach Fire Rescue for a digital fire training system in a joint grant application between them, Coombs, and Dashwood fire stations.

Deputy fire chief in Qualicum Friso McKenzie said this new equipment provides them with portable digital fire-simulating screens which can be extinguished using lasers or real water.

They also use smoke machines to add to the realism.

“We can use those to simulate as close as we can without actually having fire in these buildings and they react to water applications. If we apply the water properly they go out and the smoke slows down, and if we don’t they don’t.”

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(Friso McKenzie/Qualicum Beach Fire Rescue)

While the screens may look like regular TV screens, they are able to handle a full blast of water from a fire hose.

“You can kind of see them through the smoke, so it kind of gives you a target to hit and they will withstand full-on hard fire hose water application and they’ll react to it, so the fire will dim down or go out.”

The system will also be used by neighbouring departments in Coombs and Dashwood at their shared training facility, which was built a few years ago and is used regularly.

McKenzie said this new system will go a long way in helping them train for real-life situations, as they can be moved around and adjusted

“One of the things missing was we had no way of realistically simulating a fire in there, we can’t do live fire anything in this building. It’ll definitely improve our training building, that’s what it was missing. We would use the smoke machines, we’d smoke it out, we tried different things to simulate fire but nothing really is close.”

The new systems won’t be in place for a while yet, as they are still in the process of getting them, with supply-chain issues and the COVID-19 pandemic causing delays.

The funding is part of $6.3 million being distributed to 114 local governments, First Nations, and volunteer fire departments through the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund, helping to fund more than 1,300 projects province-wide.

Parksville fire also got $30,000 for an additional screen for their fire training system, while Lantzville received almost $28,000 for a structural firefighter thermal imaging camera.

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