A hose team moves in on a burning pipe rack prop at the fire school. - Photo by Anton Riecher

A hose team moves in on a burning pipe rack prop at the fire school.

Photo by Anton Riecher

Chevron Corporation refines 1.96 million barrels of oil per day worldwide. In March, 45 of the industrial firefighters charged with protecting that essential energy output visited the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) fire school for training.

“The firefighters represented Chevron facilities in California, Mississippi, Louisiana, Utah and Florida,” said Richard Meerman, the Chevron corporate fire school operations manager.

“The majority of our U.S. refineries send each firefighter to TEEX once every two years,” Meerman said. “During the off year, firefighters train at their refineries and may come back to TEEX for other classes such as confined space rescue or hazmat response.”

Chevron conducts fire schools at TEEX’s Brayton Fire Training Field in College Station, TX, in March, April and May each year. “The week-long fire school concentrates on safety, team work, hose handling, air management and valve closures,” Meerman said.

 “This is routine training,” he said. “It includes everyone from a brand new student who just completed the NFPA 1081 standard for industrial fire brigade member professional qualification to our fire department and emergency response team leaders that have trained here many times.” Chevron instructors lead the teams through each evolution.

Each firefighter faces 24 live-fire training exercises during the week, rotating among 12 fire training props at Brayton.

“Each team will complete four props per day and burn each prop twice,” Meerman said.

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