NEW: Firefighters practice techniques
Firefighters from Madison, Long Lake, Maryville and Venice trained for approximately four hours at an abandoned house at 1911 Sixth St. According to Madison Fire Chief Jeffery Bridick, state certified fire and safety instructors lit small fires inside the house with the use of hay and pallets during the training.
“It’s a controlled fire,” Bridick said. “You create more smoke and get the guys used to heat. They’ll be no burning of the home, but we’ll burn in the home.”Although veteran firefighters participated in the training, most of the firefighters in the exercise were working on a Firefighter 2 certification, an Illinois certification through the state fire marshal’s office. There are currently three levels of certification through the state, Firefighter 1, 2 and 3. Bridick said Firefighter 2, a year long course which includes classroom work, teaches the correct use of ladders, hose handling, knot tieing, rope usage, safety and fire behavior.
“They feel the heat of the fire, and that scares a lot of people,” Bridick said when asked about the importance of the hands-on training. “They put the mask on and they can only see four or five inches in front of their face. We’ll find out if they’re claustrophobic with the mask on. We’ll find out how they react to the heat and to the smoke.”
Bridick said he liked the way trainees could see the fires and heat build.
“You can see it roll across the ceiling and see the heat levels change on the way down,” he said.
The training involved more than just putting out fires. The firefighters also removed training dummies from house during the fires. Two state certified instructors assisted in the training: Madison’s David Klee and Long Lake’s Dan Rinehart, who served in the command mode or oversaw the training. Rinehart, who also instructs fire fighting classes at Southwestern Illinois College, thanked Madison Mayor John Hamm for allowing the house to be used for the training.
