MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Anyone enjoying the sunrise on the morning of Sept. 6 might have noticed the 200-foot flames erupting from the flight line here. Although the massive clouds of smoldering vapor and black smoke pouring into the sky may have looked like a real-world catastrophe, it was part of a routine fire-training exercise conducted by station aircraft rescue firefighters preparing for possible flight line mishaps. For hours, ARFF Marines dumped as many as 800 gallons of jet fuel into their newest training pit — set it all on fire — and left it to the trainees to take down what most would consider hell on earth. “You gotta understand every firefighter is just a little bit of a pyro,” said Pfc. David J. Hess, one of Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron’s newer firefighters. “After leaving the schoolhouse, I thought I knew everything. When you’re standing there and you see the fire 25 feet above your head, you’re heart starts pounding and you get the adrenaline rush — but that’s pretty much why everyone is here.” Hess may have seen the early-morning fires as somewhat of a wake-up call, but for others, it was just another day at work. Lance Cpl. James Frame, an H&HS aircraft rescue firefighter, explained how seemingly unpredictable flames can be extinguished with precision and grace. “The biggest things when dealing with a fire of this size are technique and staying close together,” he said. “If two crews stay shoulder-to-shoulder, they can work the same pattern together and push the flames away from each other as long as they stay at the same pace. If they’re too far apart, they’re only fighting themselves while feeding the fire back toward each other.” ARFF Marines are trained to focus when things get hot. Common knowledge between the firefighters when dealing with burning fuel vapor is to stay low and attack the flames with a 30-degree front. Instead of smothering flames at the base like generic extinguisher labels instruct, ARFF Marines know to spray just above the fuel’s surface to cool the air igniting from extreme heat. “It’s the fuel’s vapor that’s burning, not the fuel itself,” Frame added. They train with two teams of four Marines — a hand-line, back-up, turret and safety. As the handline works to extinguish the flames directly, the back-up ensures he hasn’t missed anything and yanks him back into position if he is tripped. The safety stresses technique and ensures training is going smoothly. In a real-world situation, the turret is the first to begin smothering the flames with a foam mixture from atop the ARFF truck. Meanwhile, the hand-line does the same job on the ground level, while the back-up rushes to rescue any crash victims. With practice, the whole process will play out in seconds. “We needed this training,” said Hess. “This is the real deal. You can train all day without fire, but this one is very much alive. You have to feel it and commit to it.”