Duane Hicks
District firefighters went back to school last week for a 40-hour course at the Fort Frances Airport, marking a first for the new permanent fire training site there.
Under the tutelage of five Ontario Fire College associate instructors from the Fort Frances Fire and Rescue Service, 28 students from Fort Frances, Alberton, La Vallee, Morley, and Dawson completed what’s called a “Mod A” course, where they learned about search-and-rescue, hose streams, fire suppression (exterior and interior fires, fuel fires, propane fires, and vehicle fires), ventilation, ladder functions, and more.
“We pretty well covered the gamut of what people run into in most of the settings,” said chief of operations and training Frank Sheppard, who headed up last week’s training.
He explained the course consisted of instruction on Thursday evening, as well as on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings in the newly-renovated “classroom” on the upper level of the maintenance shop at the airport.
The rest of the time was spent doing field work to the north of the runway, such as putting out burning cars and exercises with railway shipping containers converted into a search-and-rescue unit and a burn chamber.
“It was very well-received,” said Sheppard. “I know from an instructional standpoint, we really enjoyed doing the work.”
The course marked a series of firsts, including the first time the new training site being developed at the airport was used, as well as the start of much more training being provided here by local firefighters.
Sheppard said while OFC-sanctioned district training exercises are not new, what’s notable about this one was that it was led by five OFC associate instructors from the Fort Frances Fire and Rescue Service (himself, Greg Allan, Joe Bobczynski, Dave Crichton, and Rob Dokuchie).
“We’re co-ordinating and delivering the programming,” remarked Sheppard.
“Most of the ones that have happened in the past have been sanctioned by the college, as well, but the significant difference with this here is we have achieved the capacity to be able to do this delivery in-house, which really never has happened before.
“It’s going to speak very well to some future opportunities that we can do here,” he added.
As well, the newly-formatted course done last week was sanctioned by the OFC but actually was the “pilot of a pilot project,” noted Sheppard, and won’t be taught at the fire college until next month.
Fort Frances Fire Chief Gerry Armstrong attended some of the training as an observer and said he was pleased with how it went.
“We had some really positive feedback from the other fire departments and the Ontario Fire College,” he noted. “The training site is working beautifully for us.”
Chief Armstrong added the training site for district firefighters was made possible thanks to district municipalities and the Rainy River District Mutual Aid Association, as well as several district organizations and businesses which donated materials and heavy equipment to use.
Chief Armstrong said he “sees good things in the future for the site,” and is confident there will be many more courses taught there down the road.
“We’re trying to provide the best quality service we can,” he stressed, adding it’s possible the site even might be used some day to provide training to private businesses.
Sheppard said the local OFC associate instructors will be busy providing more exercises in the future, such as pump operations and “Mod BD” (a continuation of the Mod A course), as well as delivering some strictly academic instruction.
