VIDEO: The HAMMER Federal Training Center hosted fire departments and decision-makers from across Washington state on Friday, March 22 for Fire Ops 101. Fire Ops 101 offers elected officials a day of firefighter training to give perspective on how fire crews operate and the challenges they face on the job. I trained shoulder-to-shoulder with city councilmembers, mayors and other officials to share just a taste of how our local heroes go to battle. Firefighters walked us through six separate simulations which they called 'props.' After donning around 50 pounds of gear, firefighters briefed us on our first prop: a car fire. Firefighters taught us they attack car fires at a diagonal angle from the front bumper to limit the risk of auto parts striking them if auto parts explode outward from the car.