OVERVIEW OF THE $5.5 MILLION TRAINING FACILITY

The RTFC Training Academy annuallytrains customers throughout the UnitedStates and the world in all aspects ofemergency response. In the past fiveyears the RTFC Training Academy hasconducted a total of over 150,000hours of training to customers not onlyfrom Texas, but also the continental

United States as well as, clients from asfar away as Canada, Mexico, Malaysia,Venezuela, Brazil, Africa and SaudiArabia. All RTFC Training AcademyInstructors are career firefighters, who“practice what they teach” in their dailywork assignments. In addition, theRTFC Training Academy has a variety of“Adjunct” instructors, from across theUnited States and the United Kingdom,whom are considered experts in their

respective fields of instruction. TheRTFC Training Academy specializes in“custom tailored” courses which arebuilt to meet the unique hazards andspecific training needs of its individualcustomers.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The RTFC Training Academy is situatedon approximately 9 acres of land and isequipped with a variety of Live Fire,Hazardous Materials and rescue trainingprops. A 220,000 gallon water tank pro-vides fire water flow to the training fieldvia two Detroit Diesel 3,000 GPM firepumps. A 5,000 gallon kerosene tankand a 10,000 gallon propane storagetank provides fuel for fire training propsand all fire water run off is captured andtreated, on site, in the facilities 250,000gallon waster water treatment plant. TheTraining field has a variety of commonindustrial and municipal fire hydrants,sprinkler systems and foam systemsavailable for use. Classrooms are avail-able on site, with seating capacity of upto 100 students. All classrooms areequipped with modern audio/visualtraining capabilities. Restroom, rehaband showering facilities are also locatedon site, and the RTFC Training Academy

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The Refinery Terminal By Jason Flores,

RTFC Firefighter, and John David Lowe,

RTFC Division Chief

The Refinery Terminal

Brief History and overview of the Refinery Terminal Fire CompanyThe Refinery Terminal Fire Company (RTFC) was established in 1948, in the wake ofthe Texas City, Texas disaster, and today is the largest non-profit industrialfirefighting group in the United States. RTFC currently has over 100 full time careerfirefighters, which operate 6 fire stations 365 days a year (protecting itsmembership’s 70 plus industrial facilities). As a company RTFC has responded tothousands of fires, hazardous materials releaases, rescues and medical emergenciesthroughout the oil, petrochemical, pipeline and port facilities of its members. Allcareer RTFC firefighters are highly trained in industrial firefighting, storage tankfirefighting, interior structural firefighting and marine firefighting; as well ashazardous material responses, emergency medical responses, confined spacerescue, high angle rescue and trench rescue response. RTFC also provides a numberof special services such as: inspections, testing and maintenance of equipment; fire& rescue pre-planning; fire or rescue emergency “stand by” services and consultingservices. In addition, RTFC operates a $5.5 million training center which is used totrain its worldwide clientele in all aspects of emergency response and preparedness.

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has a fully stocked and functionalmedical clinic manned by a certifiedEMS staff member.

TRAINING PROGRAMS AND COURSES

● Industrial Firefighting (Process UnitFirefighting)The Process Unit Fire Fighting Pro-gram offers students with intense“hands on” live firefighting trainingthat resembles the specifics haz-ardous that may occur in a particularcustomer’s facility. The programincludes live LPG and flammableliquid fires, offensive and defensivestrategies, as well as, day light andnight fire attack scenarios.

● Marine FirefightingRTFC is also responsible for the pro-tection of the Port of Corpus ChristiAuthority with any fire that maytake place on vessels, docks or otherfacilities in the ship channel. ThePort of Corpus Christi FirefightingBarge is operated by RTFC personaland is capable of pumping 8,000GPM of water and carries 15,000gallons of foam concentrate. There-fore, RTFC personnel are well trainedwith the newest innovations inmarine firefighting and as a result,can offer a wide variety of instruc-tion pertaining to marine vessel andfacility related emergencies. TheRTFC Training Academy is equippedwith $500,000 marine firefightingprop, with both LPG and flammableliquid fire capabilities, to make thesetraining courses as realistic as possi-ble. The RTFC Training Academy is aUSCG approved training facility.

● Structural FirefightingRTFC personal are trained to respondto structures buildings and ware-houses that are owned and operatedby its member companies. As aresult, the RTFC Training Academycan offer a variety of training coursesthat encompass all types of structuralfirefighting responsibilities. These

courses are custom built to theclient’s needs and include such top-ics as: exterior fire attacks, apparatusplacement, interior fire attacks,ladder operations, occupant searches,stand pipe and hose pack operations,ventilation operations, overhauloperations, “Rapid Intervention”(RIT) training and much more.

● High Angle and Confined SpaceTechnical RescueThe RTFC Training Acade-my rescue courses regularlytrain individuals to respondto a wide variety of indus-trial, municipal and othertypes of emergencies.These course encompasstraining on equipmentidentification, care anduse; rope anchors, riggingand hauling system build-ing techniques, patientaccess, packaging andextrication techniques aswell, as rescuer responsibil-ities and safety practices.

● Trench Collapse RescueBecause RTFC is also responsible forresponding to any trench rescueincidents that may occur within itsmembership, the RTFC TrainingAcademy is equipped with a trenchrescue trailer, fully stocked withhydraulic shoring and diggingequipment, as well as, having highlyqualified personnel to present trenchcollapse training courses. All training

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courses are designed to use actualtrenches that are purposely collapsedduring the scenarios and must berapidly shored, using appropriatetechniques, prior to rescuers enteringand extricating the patient.

● Hazardous MaterialsThe RTFC Training Academy’s goal isto train individuals on how to appro-priately respond to a release of ahazardous material(s). These coursesprovide training relevant to the 29CFR 1910.120 and NFPA 472 stan-dards and are tailored to the HAZ-WOPER, First Responder, Technicianand Refresher levels. The multitude oftraining props available for thesecourse allows the Training Academyto supply real life scenarios that meetthe some of the following objectives:surveying the hazardous materialsfrom a safe location, estimation of thepotential harm, identifying defensiveoptions, as well as, assuming the moreaggressive roles of determining theappropriateness of personal protectiveequipment, decon setup, plugging,patching or otherwise stopping therelease of a hazardous substance for avariety containers, rail cars, pipelines,process systems and others.

● Aircraft Rescue Firefighting (ARFF)These courses are designed to givethe structural firefighter a basicknowledge of aircraft firefightingprinciples. Personnel who mayrespond to an aircraft incident, on oroff an airport site, will benefit from

these courses, which focus on thestrategy and tactics of general, com-mercial and military aircraft inci-dents. Some of the topics willinclude aircraft and airport familiar-ization, firefighting and rescue tac-tics, and hazardous materials. TheRTFC Training Academy is a FAAapproved training facility.

● Emergency Medical TrainingAll RTFC instructors are Texas Dept.of Health EMT-B or Paramedic certi-fied and capable of presenting avariety of EMS courses, from FirstAid, Refresher or Certification courses.

TRAINING PROPS

● Industrial Process Unit Prop The RTFC Industrial Process Unittraining prop is used to create worsecase scenarios that may occur withinindustry and is capable of providinga variety of LPG and flammable liq-uid fires on equipment, such as:process towers, piping, vertical prod-uct pumps, horizontal productpumps, heat exchangers, fin fans,storage tanks and other commoncomponents of the modern chemicaland refining processes. Evolutionsoften involve all aspects of fire andhazardous materials responses andcan include: Incident Command,apparatus placement, fixed fire sys-tems, foam attacks, water run-offmanagement, fire water manage-ment, offensive and defensive strate-gies, search and rescue and manymore. Students gain first handknowledge in techniques for hosehandling, fire stream applications,use of portable and fixed equipment,foam application, communicationsand teamwork.

● Pump Alley PropThis training prop is a series of 4horizontal product pumps, locatedwithin the Industrial Process Unit,and is capable of producing LPG andflammable liquid fires on one or all

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of the pumps simultaneously. Stu-dents learn how to approach thesefires set up portable equipment andsuccessfully isolate block valves onmultiple pieces of equipment.

● Truck Loading Terminal PropThis training prop consists of multi-ple flange leaks and pipe ruptureswhich spill to a holding area thatmay be ignited. This type of trainingallows students to learn the dangersand techniques associated withemergencies involving the loading orunloading of tankers.

● Rail Car PropThe rail car and rail track trainingprops are used for a variety of Haz-ardous Materials and confined spacerescue training scenarios and can beused to teach students the identifica-tion procedures and tactics involvedin these types of emergencies.

● Two level fire structure PropThis building can be used to simu-late either house, office or apart-ment fires and consists of threerooms upstairs and three roomsdownstairs, all capable of burningClass A materials for firefighting.This structure provides intense heatand zero visibility, while allowingstudents to practice search and res-cue, attack, standpipe, ventilationand overhaul operations.

● Ship/Barge PropThe simulated ship/barge trainingprop consist of multiple decks with

two diesel engines, a boiler front, abilge, various pumps, steep ladders,a bridge, storage compartments anda “Universal Ship-to-Shore” waterconnection. This training prop iscapable of produce LPG and flam-mable liquid fires and allows stu-dents to master techniques forsearch and rescue, access and egress,fire water and foam applications anda variety of other tasks associatedwith modern marine vessel emergen-cies. This training prop has beenapproved by the USCG as a trainingfacility for “Marine Firefighting forLand based Firefighters”.

● Aircraft PropThe aircraft training prop is designedto simulate an aircraft that hasencountered a crash or fire and iscapable of producing flammableliquid engine fires as well as, Class Amaterial fuselage fires. This trainingprop allows students to performsearch and rescue and fire attackoperations on realistic vehicle, com-plete with a passenger seating com-partment. This training prop hasbeen approved by the FAA as an“Aircraft Crash Fire and Rescue”training facility.

● High Angle and Confined SpaceRescue Training PropsThe RTFC Training Academy hasmultiple props available, in which toconduct high angle and confinedspace rescue operations. These propsinclude: pipes, vessels, towers, reac-tors, rail cars, tanks and drums all of

which are equipped with a variety ofhorizontal and vertical access entryconfigurations to meet 29 CFR1910.136 regulations. In addition,the RTFC Training Academy regular-ly conducts rescue training courseson board the U.S.S. Lexington Air-craft Carrier Museum. This decom-missioned aircraft carrier provides aunique training environment withover 14,000 confined spaces, mostof which are in parts of the shipwhich not accessible to tourists. CallRTFC today and you can enjoy “Res-cue Training at the Beach”, courtesyof our association with the U.S.S.Lexington Museum.

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Company Information:

Refinery Terminal Fire Company

P.O. Box 4162Corpus Christi, Texas (USA)

78469-41621-361-882-6253

www.rtfc.org

Emergency ResponseServices

4802 Up River RoadCorpus Christi, Texas (USA) 78407

1-361-882-6253

Training AcademyServices

3920 Carbon Plant RoadCorpus Christi, Texas (USA) 78410

1-361-885-7100

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