New training technology never before used in Brevard County is helping Titusville firefighters prepare for a real fire in innovative ways.

  • Innovative fire simulator being used by Titusville Fire
  • BULLEX fills building with smoke, replicates realistic fire
  • Tech uses digital panels to project look and sound of fire

“You play like you practice, and this gives us the ability to play like this is the real game,” Titusville firefighter Adam Vaknin said during a training session Monday morning.

Up until this year, it was often difficult to do that. That’s where the new training program, called BULLEX, comes in: It allows them to simulate an actual fire, filling an entire four-story building with smoke.

“Any time you take visibility out of it, that’s one of your biggest senses and biggest resources. When you take that out of play, everything is heightened. It's a much different experience," Vaknin said.

BULLEX not only simulates smoke; it uses digital fire panels that replicate the look and sound of fire — even requiring real water to put it out.

“I can place it anywhere in this tower, and it’s their guess as good as anyone else’s where it might be. This is what we like to use to keep our crews on their toes,” Battalion Chief Greg Sutton said.

For the Titusville firefighters who put their lives on the line daily, they said this intense simulation will only make them stronger.

“When we do these basic training routines well, the whole thing works a lot more smoothly in the field, and that can mean seconds and that can mean lives,” Sutton said.

They hope to expand their training facility to extend another two acres in the coming years.