Practicing your skills is important in any profession, and fire fighting is no exception. That’s why fire fighters from all different squads gathered at Apollo Career Center to practice for when a real fire occurs. The event was a collaboration between Apollo Career Center and Swartz Contracting and Emergency Services.
"About six months ago we were approached by Swartz Contracting, they wanted to put on some kind of burn, be it a house or whatever, and we talked and said that we have this facility, it's a great facility - we can do multiple burns instead of one day of burns and do these four days a year, so we said we're going to have it out here," said JR Long, Fire Coordinator for Apollo Adult Education.
Inside the fire training tower is a controlled fire environment for the fire fighters to practice getting set and tracking the fire without the risk of injury. It’s also the only training tower of its kind in a 90 mile radius, meaning that fire squads from around the area and even farther can come and train. This is especially helpful when some squads don’t see a live fire very often.
"There department might have 10 hours a year, but it's a volunteer department, so they might be at work the days that they have the fire, so they don't get a fire for maybe a couple of years, so they get a chance to come out here, spend some time learning the limits of their gear and the safety equipment we wear - that when you're hot, it's hot," Long said.
Swartz Contracting said that they stepped in and sponsored the live burn events because keeping fire fighters trained is something they saw as crucial.
"We work closely with a lot of the area fire departments - we come in after a fire and secure a property, and then restore that property and dry out the structure - so we work closely with these fire departments, and education and training are very important at Swartz Contracting, so this is one of the ways that we give back to the fire departments," said Blake Bartels, Director of Business Development for Swartz Contracting. "You don't always know the next time you're going to be in a fire, so it's good to have this training."
Two more free live burn events will be held later this year.
