Norfolk Firefighting School Turns Up the Heat During Live Exercise

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Molly Anne Greendeer, Navy Public Affairs Support Element East

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- The Norfolk Farrier Fire Fighting School is nearing the end of its annual Damage Control Assistant/Senior Enlisted (DCA/SE) course for 16 international students as they began a live-firefighting exercise Aug. 8.

The seven-week course is designed to teach national and international sailors how to identify and combat shipboard damages. This particular course was an identical DCA/SE course that is offered at the Surface Warfare Officers School (SWOS) Command in Norfolk.

Sailors from the Colombian, Republic of Korea, Republic of Singapore, Lithuanian Naval Force and Royal Saudi navies attended the course.

Each year, navies from around the world have the opportunity to send officers and senior enlisted to the course where damage control personnel learn how the U.S. Navy prepares for and deals with shipboard damage.

"We do this course annually to teach them what our DCAs do on ships here," said Chief Damage Controlman Michael Lewis, one of the course instructors. "We talk to them and teach them what we do and they give us input on how they would handle the same situations."

Chief Damage Controlman Melvin Smith, an instructor at the school encourages all allied navies to take the course and learn as much as they can about the U.S. Navy's techniques and to share its methods to become more efficient in damage control efforts.

"It's important to stay relevant," said Smith. "We continually upgrade our techniques and take what we learn from our international students to provide the best damage control training possible."

"All the students come here with knowledge of what damage control is all about," said Lewis. "Because they already know the basic language of damage control, it makes it easier for us to communicate and demonstrate our damage control techniques."

Students have the opportunity to use their own navy's firefighting techniques while learning new techniques during a firefighting and wet trainer, which are designed to simulate real-life situations.

"We put them in situations and we put pressure on them to see what kind of decisions they are going to make, because damage control is all about how quickly you assess the damage and make decisions," said Damage Controlman 1st Class Paul Andersen. "We want to know how they would prioritize the damages and balance their resources."

Colombian Senior Chief Damage Contolman German Castilla-Castillo said he was amazed at the size and realness of the live firefighting facilities.

 "We have never fought fires on a big scale like this," said Castilla-Castillo. "The time and effort put into the training exercises better prepare myself and those who work under me."

Smith said it is important to ensure that all demonstrations and courses emphasize safety of students and service members and hopes the students go on to supervise after returning to their home country.

"Safety is paramount," said Smith. "Before the students put their hands on any equipment or run through any training exercise, we do a safety brief. We want to make sure they are prepared for any situation."

The course stresses that safety is just as important when they return to their ships as every ship is at risk of encountering a dangerous situation.

"Damage control is an international concern." said Damage Contolman 1st Class Scott Cheesbrough. "No matter what ship you are on and no matter what country you are from, ultimately those ships go in harm's way."

The students will graduate from the course Aug. 16.