It's a situation no firefighter wants to find themselves in — a room with no visibility when, under the already heavy weight of turnout gear and air packs, the floor caves in or wires or fencing causes entrapment.

Their faces covered so they couldn't see and using only fire hoses to guide them, firefighters from Roanoke Rapids and their rapid intervention team partners from the Roanoke Valley Rescue Squad tested those scenarios today, feeling their way through a series of booby traps in the old police and fire station on Roanoke Avenue.

(The complete series of photos can be found on our Facebook page)

Rocky Mount instructors deploy the fence trap.

“Six of us have taken this in various classes,” said Assistant Chief Stacy Coggins. “We feel by taking this class, that it would make our firefighters safer.”

Today's training marked the first of several days of exercises in firefighter self rescue and rapid intervention, training that will end next Thursday with a huge drill.

The first exercise of the morning was self rescue. “We always think of protecting people,” Coggins said, “But we don't always think about protecting ourselves.”

With instructors from the Rocky Mount Fire Department setting up the drills, firefighters and rescue workers were taught the basic commandments of entrapment, calling May Day, practicing self rescue and rapid intervention.

Rowland crawls nearer the dangling wires.

The Roanoke Rapids firefighters made the sets themselves, sets which include a collapsing floor simulator, a chain link fence trap and a simple overhead hanging tangle of wires. “We're grateful to W.C. Jones for letting us use the facility and allowing us to put in (the traps). It's going to make us more aware of our surroundings,” Coggins said.

Many times firefighters develop tunnel vision and only concentrate on the fire and not the dangers that accompany the fire like the collapsing floors and entanglement traps.

While perhaps not surprising to firefighters, there are more dangers of collapse in newer buildings than older ones, Chief Gary Corbet said. “The older buildings were built more solidly. It can be residential or commercial.”

Firefighters used to adhere to a 20-minute rule, which says it would take that long for a building to fall. “Newer buildings can fall in as little as six minutes,” the chief said, hence new regulations which require two in and two out and the standby help of agencies like Roanoke Valley.

The collapsing floor simulator.

While there have been no firefighter entrapments in Roanoke Rapids, Corbet recalled one in Tennessee that happened almost immediately after firefighters entered the building. “That's how quick it can happen.”

With the added weight of turnout gear and air packs, “It can happen really quickly,” the chief said.

Inside the building, firefighters on hands and knees used the hose to guide them through the building, using their free hand as an obstruction sensor.

Before the flash of the camera, this roon was completely dark.

The maze took them through being snagged on a line and having fencing thrown on top of them, to them finding their way out of a closed room, only to find themselves crawling up a short set of stairs that led to the collapsing floor simulator.

“That was pretty fun,” Roanoke Rapids firefighter Brandon Shearin said. “It's good training.”

“These scenarios show how quickly that could happen,” said Jason Rowland of the rescue squad. “You have more knowledge of what could potentially go wrong.”

For Corbet, there is another important reason for having the firefighters and rescue technician go through this training, for which they will receive credit. “Our goal is to make sure everybody goes home.”