POCATELLO — Sometimes the people firefighters must battle to save are themselves.

    Capt. Mark Araki and other members of the Pocatello Fire Department are making sure their firefighters are prepared for the worst-case scenarios to help ensure the best-case outcome.

    “Basically what we try and do periodically with our new guys and everybody else in the department is go through some survival techniques for the firefighters to get themselves out of trouble if they happen to get into trouble,” said Araki, a 14-year veteran with the department. “We put them in situations where they have to rescue another firefighter or you’re entangled, whether falling through a floor or stuck in some sort of confined space.”

    Firefighting equipment can weigh 50 to 60 pounds. Combine that with the possibility of limited visibility and treacherous conditions, and you have situations ripe for firefighters getting into trouble.

    Araki, 43, cites the 2004 conflagration that destroyed the Gateway Performance Outfitters building on the 400 block of South Arthur as an example.

    The fire caused the false ceiling to fall in, along with everything above it, including ducting and wiring. Eventually, the wall also collapsed.

    “There were wires and things that just fell all over onto the floor,” Araki said. “Between that and all the bicycles in there, it was like a big spider web, just a big mess.”

    Firefighters battled the blaze inside the building for 45 minutes before the structure started to come down.

    Just as the military trains for combat situations, firefighters benefit by training for dangerous scenarios.

    “If we put them in a situation where they’re entangled by a bunch of wires, or they’re trying to get out of a building, and they encounter wires and ropes and hoses and different things like that, we show them techniques to get through some of those things with their helmet and the mask and their pack,” Araki said.

    It’s not particularly intuitive, either.

    For example, in the scenario where a firefighter is suddenly ensnared by cables and whatnot, the best way out of the predicament is probably not your first guess.

    “If something really does happen, they can at least fall back on some of the training that we’ve done to allow that to keep their head and think ... ‘Let’s see, there’s a ton of wires here. I know if I lie on my back and kind of dog paddle upside-down, I think I can get through most of these wires,’” he said.

    Even though the training situation doesn’t put them in harm’s way, the realism can still be unsettling.

    “It puts them in that situation where they are pretty anxious, even though they know this is training,” Araki said. “What we try to do is get them to experience some of this stuff that has killed firefighters before.”

    The department does much of its training at the fire drill tower on West Gould next to the Portneuf River. But it also uses existing structures when it can. For example, two buildings that were recently razed on South Grant to make way for a Habitat for Humanity structure provided an excellent training scenario.

    The buildings were in rough shape, with holes in the floor.

    “The scenario was there were some firefighters fighting a fire, the floor was soft, their captain fell through and got stuck in the floor,” he said. “They had a really hard time getting him out of this floor.”

    The payoff can be the difference in personal safety and lives.

    “For the most part, what (we’ve) been trying to do is expose the guys to uncomfortable situations when it’s safe so that they can operate in these uncomfortable situations,” he said.