NASHUA – Wearing blacked-out masks to simulate zero visibility in a smoky fire, new firefighters paired off last Thursday to find the second floor of a vacant farmhouse on Tinker Road, search the rooms and ultimately get out safely as a team.

The exercise was part of a five-weeks familiarization training program for four new Nashua Fire Rescue firefighters who were hired to replace retiring veterans.

NFR is training the new recruits to acquaint them with the city department’s protocol and procedures.

"They have to do 25 days of training for us. We’re basically ‘Nashuaizing’ them, teaching them our methods and how we operate," said NFR training officer Capt. Rick Conway.

"Everyone has different procedures for the same end game," he said, and procedures may change slightly based on things such as staffing.

The four recruits, Kevin Morrissey, Donald Maffee, Thomas Newman and Nicholas Proulx, are taking their current skills and transferring them to real-life conditions they would face on the job.

Another challenge the recruits faced included a refresher drill where the firefighters had to self-rescue by following a tangled fire hose out of the building, using clues learned in earlier training, all while alarms were blaring and without the benefit of seeing where they were going.

During the first three weeks, the new members will train with the city’s air packs, engines, ladder trucks, tools and techniques preferred by the department. The fourth week is reserved for fire behavior training and practice with the department’s thermal imaging gear, where the recruits will experience drills incorporating elements from the previous three weeks.

If a building becomes available, the fifth week will focus on live fire exercises and an actual structure fire to "put all those practical skills to the test as safely as possible under real conditions, with seasoned firefighters to guide them," Conway said.

"It’s as realistic as we can make it," he added.

Don Himsel can be reached at 594-6590, dhimsel@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DonH.

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