Rainbow Lake and Zama City firefighters joined High Level Fire Department September 25-27 to learn and brush up on their skills at High Level’s fire training centre. The training event is held several times throughout the year and focuses on a large number of firefighting skills in a short amount of time.
Many junior firefighters, new members and the newly re-activated Zama City fire department firefighters joined in on the weekend.
“It was a really good experience and weekend with everyone helping each other out” said Rodney Schmidt, Director of Protective Services and High Level Fire Chief. “To see enthusiasm in new members, it actually raises the bar for senior members to get into a lot more of a support and teaching role.”
One training exercise in particular they did called the “Denver Drill”, teaches survival skills for the firefighters themselves. The exercise involves rescuing a downed firefighter from a very narrow hallway with a high window. The drill is based from a line-of-duty death in a similar situation in Denver, Colorado. “It took them a long period of time to get the firefighter out. So since then there’s a prop used for training, for team-building in a structure fire.” said Schmidt.
High Level’s training facility is the only certified, engineered training facility for live fire north of Peace River.
Firefighters at High Level’s fire training centre, September 25-27
-Erika Rolling, Trending 55 Newsroom
