It’s a couple of hours of classroom and then down on to the apparatus floor to start getting used to the feel of full protective clothing and self contained breathing apparatus. Even though Carver’s protective clothing and breathing apparatus are state of the art, the combined package still weighs in around 40 pounds. Not what you really want to add to your body BEFORE you start doing strenuous work, but it is what you need to survive when you enter environments that will not support human life, or in other words, a routine house fire. (Photo’s by Firefighter Rob Reardon)