Two More Dalton Firefighters Earn Smoke Diver Certifications
Tuesday, February 28th, 2023
When things get tough, it's good to have someone to lean on. Two Dalton firefighters recently learned that lesson the hard way as they fought their way through the grueling Georgia Smoke Divers training course, leaning on each other and also other members of the the department who came through before them.
Ultimately, Zach Carlson and Byron Miranda were able to make it to the finish line of the six day, 60-hour course.
"I’ll be honest, I was very, very nervous leading up to the class," Miranda said. "We started training months prior and luckily we had a lot of guys from our department who are Smoke Divers and they really worked with us."
Caption: Dalton firefighters Byron Miranda (left) and Zach Carlson (right) stand together during a break in the action at the Georgia Smoke Divers training earlier this month at the Dalton Fire Department Training Center
"I just give credit to the guys who trained me and I am very thankful to have a strong and confident partner with me to lean on," said Carlson. "I know (Miranda) leaned on me sometimes and I leaned on him, just to get through it together."
The Smoke Divers school is a six-day, 60-hour course designed to push experienced firefighters to their physical and mental limits. The program's website says the course "condenses and replicates the extreme demands that may be placed on firefighters at any incident. Emphasis is placed on the day-to-day challenges firefighters face at structure fires, multiple-alarm fires and multiple fires within a single shift... Its design allows each candidate to understand and manage their physical and mental limitations under safe but stressful realistic conditions." The course is grueling enough to require that all nutrition and fluid intake by candidates is monitored and documented, and candidates must have physician's approval before participating. 44 candidates started the most recent class, held earlier this month at the Dalton Fire Department's training center on Abutment Road. Only 20, including Carlson and Miranda, were able to graduate on February 10th.
"I learned more about myself," Carlson said. "I thought that I knew what my limit was before, but they just kind of push you a little further where you figure out… there’s always a little more left in the tank to keep going."
"It’s honestly mind over body. Your body is tired, sore, you think you can’t go anymore but you just find it," Miranda said. "Your mind pushes through."
The Dalton Fire Department has a large number of Smoke Divers on staff, and the drills and culture of the program have made ther way into the department's training for all of its personnel. The result is a fire service that is prepared to save lives and protect property in any situation that comes up, and also a fire service that produces worthy candidates to earn their own black t-shirts as Smoke Divers.
"I was actually in the program with guys in the class and I was telling them that our recruit school for the Dalton Fire Department is like Baby Smoke Divers," Miranda said. "Because we’ve been through all of that stuff, all of the drills, the PT, all of it we’ve been through it. Maybe not in as stressful a situation, but we've been through it."
Caption: The graduating members of the February 2023 Georgia Smoke Divers school
For Zach Carlson, the toughest moment was coming close to failure on a drill called the "five hose evolution." In the drill, five different hose lines are hopelessly tangled together throughout the dark, smoke filled burn building during a fire. Each Smoke Diver candidate is placed inside the building for a search drill and told to follow their hose line through the building and find the nozzle. It's easier said than done.
"(The hoses) are spread across the building and they have them in knots and they’re all bundled up and tracing the same hose and staying on it was really tough for me. I almost went home, I was down to my last try where they say you either make it this time or you’re done. So, I ended up making it, thank God," Carlson remembers. "It was pretty stressful, I had one of the guys from the fire department, he was there to give me a little tough love, I think that’s what I needed to get through it."
For Byron Miranda, the toughest part of the course was just making it through the six days of wear and tear on his body. Candidates are left sore, bloodied, tired, and hungry by the last day of training.
"Just being beat up from the day prior, waking up in the mornings, your body is tired and you haven’t had time to recover," Miranda recalls. "I’d say that was the hardest part, just to keep going."
The reward at the end is a black Smoke Divers t-shirt that firefighters only get to wear by completing the course. Each graduate also earns their Smoke Diver number, which will only ever be assigned to them. The program started in 1977, but fewer than 1,200 firefighters have earned their number.
"(Getting my shirt) was very awesome, especially for me because my older brother (Andrew) is also a Smoke Diver so at the graduation he’s the one who gave me my black shirt so it was a nice moment between me and him," said Carlson, Smoke Diver #1157.
"It ended up being awesome. I learned a lot," said Miranda, Smoke Diver #1156, summing up the experience. "There were a lot of great guys out there from all over the country, not just from Georgia... they eat, breathe, and sleep fire department. They love it and honestly, it was a very eye-opening experience and it motivated me to progress in my career."
