Labette Community College hosts 41st Annual Fire School
PARSONS, Kan. — Firefighters from several states gathered in Parsons to sharpen up their rescue and response skills.
“I mean the next closest thing is like burning down a house, you know what I mean,” said Adam Haywood, Adams County (CO) Fire Rescue Firefighter.
Nearly 200 firefighters participated in Labette Community College’s 41st Annual Fire School.
Seven states were represented, including Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas – and even Colorado.
Firefighter Adam Haywood is from Adams County Fire Rescue in Denver.
“Biggest takeaway for me out here today is just how realistic you can make training when you put together a very well thought out and well-prepared burn plan,” said Haywood.
The two-day training consists of some book work – plus hands-on training.
“We use what’s called a class-A burn package, a fuel package. It’s a tent, if you will, of plywood or pallets, and they stuff it with hay. The wetter, the hay, the better. It creates more sticky black smoke,” said Haywood.
“As time has gone on and we’ve implemented standards and things like that, the number of fires a year has gone down some. So, we don’t see them as frequently as, say, in the seventies or what they call the war years and so with that we have kind of a training gap. And so, where we can try to fill that void from just learning the basics in a parking lot, putting them in a realistic scenario, this is taking that one step further,” said Andrew Johnston, LCC Fire School Committee President.
Firefighters are also run through vehicle extrication scenarios.
Officials say it’s important to stay up to date on all types of scenarios – because you never know when the training will become a reality.
“We know we have to deal with it in the real world, but we want to make sure that we do account for some of these guys having less experience – and we want a positive learning environment with no accidents,” said Johnston.
