Mannequin man
My day as a human fire training drag dummy
- published 10/01/2007 (updated 11/06/2022)
To get into the drag dummy character, I would lay with the drag dummies just to see if anyone would notice
It was late afternoon, and I'd just finished being the dummy for a crashed vehicle extrication training exercise with the fire fighter recruits, were I was cut out of a car. After the reveal, I'd asked some of the trainee recruits, who'd only just realised I wasn't a dummy, to push me back into the training centre on a trolley, and then put me back with the other dummies in the corridor, where there were stored in a pile, so that the rest of the recruits would be none the wiser.
So they they wheel back and throw me onto the pile. Up until then, the costume had looked quite new, so I tended to stand out amongst the other dummies. This time I'd spent more time getting the costume looking authentically dirty, with soot and dirt (although it was a moving target).
After about half and hour, some new recruits started to congregate and started gathering ropes and axes together, soon after this one of the sub officers arrived, and address the trainees and I realised this was a class, so I would be here for some time. Unfortunately I was starting to develop a cough, which might give me away. This was a practical lesson on rope tying, hose rolling.
The recruits were practising what they had already learnt and consisted of tying ropes to chairs and axes; the axe worried me somewhat as I imagined someone getting carried away and hacking off one of the drag dummies limbs, and I didn't want it to be one of mine; especially at one point as the sub officer left for about half an hour, and the class got a bit more boisterous.
The recruits practising rolling up hoses was interesting to watch too; no sooner they'd rolled up a hose, they'd unroll it and roll it up again; you'd think someone would have come up with a less manual way and automated this my now, unless I'm missing some tradition here.
So they they wheel back and throw me onto the pile. Up until then, the costume had looked quite new, so I tended to stand out amongst the other dummies. This time I'd spent more time getting the costume looking authentically dirty, with soot and dirt (although it was a moving target).
After about half and hour, some new recruits started to congregate and started gathering ropes and axes together, soon after this one of the sub officers arrived, and address the trainees and I realised this was a class, so I would be here for some time. Unfortunately I was starting to develop a cough, which might give me away. This was a practical lesson on rope tying, hose rolling.
The recruits were practising what they had already learnt and consisted of tying ropes to chairs and axes; the axe worried me somewhat as I imagined someone getting carried away and hacking off one of the drag dummies limbs, and I didn't want it to be one of mine; especially at one point as the sub officer left for about half an hour, and the class got a bit more boisterous.
The recruits practising rolling up hoses was interesting to watch too; no sooner they'd rolled up a hose, they'd unroll it and roll it up again; you'd think someone would have come up with a less manual way and automated this my now, unless I'm missing some tradition here.
So I'd been there quite a while, and the class had finished, and I hear someone walking down the corridor, and a guys voice, talking about that big dummy on the top of the pile. Next I feel myself being rolled over, and as this guy sees the weight, printed across the dummy costume's he face, he exclaims, "90 Kgs! What are we going to use that that one for?". He then roles me back over.
See my drag dummy page
