From the ground, we could see the black smoke spewing from an open window on the top floor of the tower looming over us.

There was a man trapped on the fifth floor, a battalion chief told us, and three of us needed to climb the tower to rescue that man.

With a mix of trepidation and anxiety, I fell behind one of my partners, Kenosha alderman Anthony Nudo. Firefighter Brian Rummelhart was behind me, and we trudged up the tower’s metal staircase. As we made the climb, a thought flashed through my mind of the firefighters on 9/11 and what they must have felt climbing the stairs of the Twin Towers.

My climb — up stairs at Kenosha’s Fire Station No. 4 — hardly compared, I knew.

The scenario was one of a handful I participated in recently as part of Fire Ops 101, an event organized by Local 414 of the Kenosha Professional Fire Fighters Union that gave elected officials and media a chance to spend a day as a firefighter, participating in live firefighting and EMS scenarios.

“I think the average citizen knows very little about what actually goes on,” said Jeff Weidner, Local 414 president, who led the event. “They drive by the fire station, they see the guys washing a truck. Maybe they went with their kids on a tour ... but in reality, there’s a lot more to it.”

In addition to experiencing what firefighters deal with daily, the Fire Ops program also points out the department’s needs — primarily equipment and personnel, Weidner said.

The National Fire Protection Association standard says there should be a minimum of four firefighters on all fire apparatus; the Kenosha Fire Department has three. Thus, Weidner said, injury rates generally are higher for firefighters, their longevity is shorter and their effectiveness isn’t maximized.

“We are short-staffed, and when budgets get tight, people have the perception that it’s easy to cut Public Safety,” Weidner said. “In reality the rubber band is stretched as far as it can go and there is no more room.”

Taking the plunge

Rarely one to turn down a new adventure, I was eager to participate, and was joined by state Rep. Samantha Kerkman, Gateway Technical College President Bryan Albrecht, state Rep. Peter Barca, state Sen. Bob Wirch, Racine Alderman Jim Kaplan and Kenosha aldermen David Bogdala, Anthony Nudo and Michael Orth.

Each of us were paired with another firefighter, designated our personal assistant. I was paired with Rummelhart, an 18-year veteran of the department. Not much bigger than my 5-foot-8-inch, 140-pound frame, he joked he was paired with me because we’re the same size.

Rummelhart helped me get into my gear — boots, pants, coat, helmet, gloves, safety glasses and a breathing mask.

By the time Rummelhart encouraged me to climb into one of the trucks, I was feeling like a boy on a Cub Scout field trip again.

Time is critical

The exercises began with a real-time medical emergency scenario based on a man suffering a heart attack. We observed as the patient’s friend called 911, struggled to explain the situation to a 911 dispatcher and then frantically paced, waiting for paramedics to arrive.

Fire officials said the scene is common. While rescue crews usually arrive on the scene of an emergency within three or four minutes, it can seem like days to the affected residents. People don’t understand, officials said, the time it takes to process the call, dispatch the information to EMS crews, who must then get prepared and drive to the emergency.

“The EMS end of things is absolutely critical because no one really knows when or if they’ll ever have the need to call for EMS,” Weidner said. “But of course, when they do, they want us there 10 minutes ago. And in reality, the fire station that you can see from your house may not be available because they’re out on another call. That’s the way it goes, and so we try to do the best we can with what we have.”

At about the 12-minute mark of the simulation, three members of an engine company arrived. As one medical technician began CPR, a paramedic set up an IV and another EMT asked the friend questions and took notes about the patient’s condition.

Within a few more minutes, a medical unit with three people rushed into the room with additional equipment. Fire officials narrating the scene stressed each of the crew members has a specific job to do.

Meanwhile, family members and friends standing by usually question why paramedics don’t immediately take the patient to a hospital. They don’t realize paramedics can do the same work as hospital staff at the scene in the time it would take to transport the patient to the hospital.

By the time the 15-minute clock had ticked away, paramedics had carried the patient out of the room.

Looks easy, but isn’t

As our training continued, we were instructed how to insert IVs — I failed that test, sticking my needle straight through the dummy arm’s vein — and how to intubate an airway. We got to feel the power of a hose shooting gallons of water and got a peek inside the command center of the Racine Fire Department’s HazMat unit.

To simulate a scenario in which firefighters must chop through a roof, we were tested on a pair of telephone poles laid across the grass. Initially, I was a little disappointed we weren’t going to be climbing on actual roofs in full firefighting gear, but it only took me a few more minutes to figure out how foolish that would have been.

Lt. David Marifern demonstrated a proper chopping stance and asked us to try it while wearing our breathing apparatus. Rummelhart wasted no time nudging me. “You’re going to do this with full gear, I can tell,” he said.

I slipped on the air tank and buckled the hip belt. Then I took the ax, wound up and threw down the blade. Wood chips darted in all directions, and I quickly understood the importance of the safety masks and heavy suits.

“You’re young so you can do this,” Marifern told me. “You only have a couple of minutes. You’ve gotta get through that roof. Let’s go!”

In training, firefighters must continue chopping for three minutes. But barely 30 seconds into the exercise, I was so gassed I could barely hold the ax upright.

In another exercise, we had to rescue a person trapped in the driver’s seat of a car. It was my task to use the cutting tool to tear away the car door.

Weighing about 40 pounds, the cutting tool works like a giant hydraulic-powered cutting pair of pliers. Handling the equipment was easy enough, and the work was far less strenuous than the chopping exercise.

Frustration resulted, however, because the equipment couldn’t work fast enough. I imagined the adrenaline flowing, our crew in position to make the successful rescue. I imagined a victim seriously injured and screaming in pain.

But again, the process can take several minutes, and like the EMS scenario we observed, that time can seem like days.

The firefighters first must set up cribbing and other devices to make sure the car or structure they’re working in is stable.

Then, it’s impossible to make a quick snip of the hinges and toss the door aside to get to the victim. The cutters only move so fast, and firefighters can’t do much more than let them slide quietly and gently through the metal.

The search continues

Our search-and-rescue mission inside the smoky tower was our final task of the day, and a chance to put some of the things we’d learned to use.

When we reached the third floor, our instructors signaled us to activate our breathing apparatuses. Armed with our axes, we crouched low on the floor and began crawling to the interior stairwell.

The smoke had become a light haze, and I could still see the other firefighters beside me. But the farther we ascended, the thicker the smoke became. My flashlight was useless.

Instead, I found myself relying on the reflective stripes on the coat of the firefighter in front of me. Touching his boot as we crawled and tapping my ax on the floor — both tips given to us by our instructors — also helped me stay with my unit and find my way through the tower.

When we reached the fourth floor, we stayed in our line and remained in a crawl, while using our “left-hand search” technique. The smoke had become so thick now it was hard to see more than a couple of inches in front of our masks, so we used our left hands to feel the walls as we navigated the room.

Eventually, we reached the stairs again and crawled to the fifth floor. But the whereabouts of the victim were unknown. We couldn’t hear anything but the hissing of our breathing apparatuses. The room was dark and filled with smoke.

One of the firefighters took out an infrared camera. On the camera’s small screen, we could see the room as though it was lit in daylight, but there was no sign of our victim. So our left-hand search continued.

A few moments later we hit something. It was a couch.

Someone handed me the camera, and I looked at its screen to see the victim’s head and arms protruding from behind the couch.

Cramped into a space the size of a doorway, Nudo and I had to figure out how to move the victim from the tower. We couldn’t carry him, and the space was too small and dark for either of us to safely crawl behind the couch. But time was ticking, and all we could do was start pulling him by his shoulders.

Initially, the victim wasn’t budging. Nudo and I had to work together. So I followed an instructor’s lead and started counting “1-2-3.” And we pulled.

With each count, we pulled the victim a couple feet until we reached the exit. And finally daylight.

Relieved and proud, we pulled off our masks and breathed easily.

Our rescue mission had taken about 20 minutes. Our tanks had only a few minutes of air left.

Finding our victim behind a couch is typical, Weidner said.

“We find children in closets; we find them under the bed because these are places of security for children,” Weidner said. “We find them hiding under the covers, under piles of clothes. ... We’ve made numerous rescues of people over the years, and you would not believe where we found them and what position they were in.”

Tools, training invaluable

When our tasks were completed, we agreed the search-and-rescue mission in the smoky tower was the toughest and the most eye-opening.

Firefighters were quick to let us wonder how the scenario might play out if we had been confronted with heat and flames, or the floor was unstable. For our exercise, we had navigated a safe structure, knowing we weren’t putting ourselves in any extreme danger.

Bogdala, Nudo and Orth said their participation gave them a better understanding of the personnel and resources the Fire Department often requests.

“You see the value of exactly when someone comes to you and says, ‘We need this new piece of equipment,’” Bogdala said. “Somebody says ‘Oh, well it costs $15,000. We’re not going to spend that.’ When you get into that tower and you get into that smoke-filled room, you see that tool is absolutely invaluable.”

Nudo said he realized the teamwork and manpower needed for fire and rescue calls, noting that any reduction of the department’s personnel would hamper firefighters’ ability to do their jobs well.

“Once you start reducing manpower per rig, it sounds great on paper, but when it really comes down to it, we need people there to save lives,” Nudo said. “That’s something that can be preached about until you’re blue in the face, but once you actually do it, you know that manpower is a huge portion of saving lives.”

The aldermen also said the event emphasized the need for continuous training, especially on new technology. During a rescue of a crash victim, for example, firefighters must have some knowledge of the car they’re working on, things like the number of air bags in the car or how the locks are controlled.