TRAINING PICTURES
The Fire Academy is the educational foundation for
our firefighters. In the academy recruits will learn what they need to know about suppressing and preventing fires,
staying alive, responding safely to hazardous materials incidents and performing basic rescue and medical care and
service.
The academy however, does not teach everything a firefighter would need to know.
Other things the firefigthers will need to know that are commonly referred to as disciplines, are either conducted in-house
or through private and state training agencies.
Some of these disciplines were touched on, which include the following:
Rope Rescue
Water Rescue (Swiftwater and Ice)
Confined Space Rescue
Structural Collapse Rescue
Trench/Excavation Rescue
Hazardous Materials
All of our members are trained at the awareness or operations level to these disciplines. Some advance to the technician
level and can function effectively in two or three of these disciplines. Those at the technician level make up our
technical rescue team.
The technical rescue team is nothing fancy. It is merely a group of our
firefighters who are trained at the technician level of a discipline, along with their normal firefighter duties.
If a rope rescue is needed, then our rope rescue technicians would respond. Training in these disciplines are intense
and fun. Monthly, members are required to conduct a series of drills, and are required to keep themselves abreast to
new changes and any updates.
Below are training pictures from some of the disciplines.
Hazardous Materials Technician - Window Rock, Arizona
Week 1 & 2
Week 1 of the Hazardous Materials Technician program
was dedicated to chemistry. The information presented provided our members the fundamentals of street
chemistry to assist in the response to chemical spills. Topics covered included the chemistry of hazardous materials,
chemical compounds, covalent bondings, hydrocarbons, hydrocarbon derivatives, oxidizing
agents, organic peroxides and monomers, explosives, water and air reactive materials, and oxidizing agents to name a few.
The information was overwhelming, however Tom got the students through it.
Week 2 of the Hazardous Materials Technician program
was dedicated to CAMEO (including Marplot
& ALOHA), Hazard Categorizing (aka Haz-Cat), and Health & Safety.
Instructors for Week 1 & 2 included Tom Abbott, Al Jensen
and Mitch Bycura of the Tempe Fire Department, and
Jeff Bierer and Matt Turner of the Flagstaff Fire Department.
Week 3
In Week 3, students covered recognition and identification,
air and radiological monitoring, PPE and decontamination.
Air monitoring and detection devices oriented the students
to air monitoring in emergency response situations. Topics covered included the
role of air monitoring in Haz-Mat response, identifying corrosive risk, oxygen level determination, combustible gas
detection, ionizing detection units, colorimetric sampling, radiological metering, and warfare agent detection.
Instructors for Week 3 included Toby Morales of the
Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency, Frank Lopez of
the Phoenix Fire Department, Steve Storwent of the Phoenix
Fire Department, and Steve Winiecki of the Flagstaff Fire Department and Western Safety Technical Consulting - the contracted
training entity for this program.
Week 4
Week 4 of the Hazardous Materials Technician class was dedicated
to IMS (Incident Management System), incident pre-planning, terrorism response, and containment and confinement of hazardous
materials.
Instructors for Week 4 included Mitch Bycura, Steve Winiecki, Todd George, and
Dave Dobbs of the Flagstaff Fire Department. Special thanks to the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) for allowing us
the use of their one-ton chlorine tank.
Week 5
Week 5 of the Hazardous Materials Technician Program was
the last week. In this week, students covered clandestine drug labs, conducted a transportation night drill, and conducted
a joint drill with the Army's 91st Civil Support Team. Other days were dedicated to review for the final practical and
written exam.
Instructors for Week 5 included Ken Morris of Arizona DPS,
the 91st Civil Support Team, and
Dave Dobbs, Matt Turner, Jeff Bierer and Steve Winiecki of the Flagstaff Fire Department.
Ron Moore's University of Extrication - Mesa, Arizona
Surface Ice Rescue Training - Tuba City, Arizona
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