Jr. Firefighters from the area that include North Huntingdon Twp, Irwin, North Irwin and Penn Township have been participating in a monthly class since February on various firefighting topics.  The objectives are to better educate Junior Firefighters on various topics and techniques as well as allowing them to work together; hopefully familiarizing themself with others for when they step up to regular firefighter.

This month our department hosted the class in the area of Mechanical Ventilation.  Natural vertical and horizontal ventilation was discussed along with hydraulic ventilation, the main topics were negative and positive pressure ventilation.  After a brief slide show with donuts,  junior firefighters divided up into three groups and performed evolutions at each workstation:

1. Positive Pressure, Single Fan
2. Negative Pressure, Single Fan
3. Positive Pressure, Parallel with two fans

After completing the evolutions, a comparison between negative pressure and positive pressure ventilation was done by smoking up the fire station and allowing each type to run for 5 minutes.  Attendees were able to see first hand how more efficient Positive Pressure Ventilation is over Negative Pressure.

The group discussed different uses for positive pressure fans (or blowers) which included exposure protection and firefighter rehabilitation after the comparison.  Before pizza was brought in, the junior firefighters were exposed to the term Positive Pressure Attack (PPA).