Firefighters hone skills in practice burn
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February 14, 2013 |
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Firefighters
from around Boundary County gathered for
training February 16 in a controlled burn
on Westside Road. |
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By Bill McCabe
Chief
North Bench Fire Department
North Bench Fire Department hosted a National
Fire Protection Association 1403 live fire
training, on an acquired structure along the
Westside Road in Bonners Ferry on Wednesday,
February 16. North Bench Fire Department, South
Boundary Fire Protection District,
Paradise Valley Fire District, Moyie Springs
Fire District and Bonners Ferry
Fire District participated in the
training.
Instructors included Chief Mike Mathers with
Northern Lakes Fire District, myself and Chief
Tony Rohrwasser, South Boundary Fire Protection
District.
Boundary County has been experiencing fewer and
fewer structure fires, and while that is good
news for the home owners, it is not such good
news for firefighters.
Due to the reduced frequency of structure fires,
firefighters do not gain a lot of the valuable
experience and skills necessary to effectively
fight fire. However, what experience is lost can
be gained through proper training.
The gap that has been created between less
experience and good firefighter knowledge and
skills is filled in with training. Firefighters
can gain the beneficial knowledge, experience
and skills required to successfully and safely
fight fire by conducting live fire training
exercises such as the one conducted in January.
We hope that this trend of a reduced number of
structure fires continues throughout the county,
however, we want to be prepared in the event
that such a disaster should occur, and we
would also like to be able to handle any other
type of hazardous incident as well, and we can
better achieved these goals through training.
We are thankful that there have been fewer
structure fires in recent years and we hope
that, at least in part, it can be attributed to
our fire prevention efforts throughout the
county. It is our desire to provide the
community with the best cut-rate county wide
fire protection and hazard mitigation as
possible.
A special thanks goes out to KG& T septic for
donating the port-a-potties for the event. |
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