Business screen magazine (1946)

UNUSUAL REALISM is created through the use of a combination of autiiovisual elements to train today's modern U.S. Forest Service firefighters. Nearly real communications situations are created in the training centers. "Fire in medium pine timber, quite a few dinvn logs on fire, must be an acre or more, burning hot, some crowning "" the excited voice crackling over the radio is that of a U.S. Forest Service trail crew foreman who has just arrived at a lightningstarted fire at the 7.000-foot line in the sicep-walled, desolate Ponderosa National Forest in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Although the voice on the radio suggests the tempo that will build as war is declared on the fire, this fire will not burn a single bush or tree, deface a forest, fell a fleeing fawn, or threaten a home. The fire appears on a projection screen upon which five different projectors are casting their images to create a scene of unusual realism. The fire simulator, installed at the U.S. Forest Service fire training center at Marana. Arizona, is used to train fire bosses, the "generals" who must assess a fire situation and deploy men, aircraft, bulldozers, vehicles and materials. Realism Key to Firefighter Training Specially constructed room In the specially constructed bell-shaped room near Tucson, the fire boss plays his role and his actions bring prompt and sometimes embarrassingly dramatic results. If, for example, he directs the pilot of a firefighting tanker plane to make his drop of chemicals at the head of the fire the colorful fire scene on the screen will diminish in intensity at the head of the fire but the flanks will crown and spot as they compete for attention. In the advanced fire management course the training follows a branching sequence. The action can follow to some degree a course of events that would be a fair response to commands given by the fire boss in training. There are at the present time more than a dozen fire simulators throughout the United States, used by various federal and state forestry agencies for intensive, professional fire training. The fire simulator at Marana' is unique, however, in' that it has an additional instructional system, the Raytheon EDEX student response system, which increases the number of active trainees from the usual four or five to forty. By using the student response system and a special program prepared with the help of Raytheon Learning Systems Company, the "observers" become active, participating trainees. Using selector buttons at their seats these additional trainees answer multiple choice questions at key points in the exercise and their responses may be used by the "umpire" in directing the activities. Although every fire represents a loss in Contimied on pai^e 26 Through a combination of audiovisual elements and a student response system, the U.S. Forest Service provides fast, accurate forest firefighting training in an atmosphere of dynamic realism. Five projectors create realistic picture of "fire" as fire bosses (right) direct their forces by radio. The picture on the screen responds to the various actions taken by the foresters in training. MAY, 1970 23