Deputy Fire Chief John Vanatta is in his third month of service to the Siloam Springs Fire Department, and from the beginning he has worked to set a new training program for the department.
This month, that training regimen is expanding as firefighters are being given an opportunity to practice their techniques in a house that has been given to the department for training uses because it has been deemed uninhabitable.
The training exercise involved setting up a simulated fire that included a smoke machine, a space heater that would be identifiable as a heat source on infrared cameras and a simulated fire victim.
Teams broke down the door, and conducted a search of the structure, put out the "fire" and rescued the victim, a mannequin named Risky Randy. Less than a week later, firefighters used that training and those same techniques while responding to a residential fire in Siloam Springs, Vanatta said.
"I know that before, this department has been more EMS focused," Vanatta said. Now, he wants to see the fire department enhance its focus on firefighting and is implementing the training to make it happen.
The change in focus will affect the allocation in personnel, with fire fighting teams now working in set teams of three, which allows teams to build more cohesion. These types of training are part of that process, Vanatta said.
"We do this once or twice a month on vacant houses when we can get them," Vanatta said. "We hope to stretch this building out as long as we can."
This week firefighters will return to that same house to practice rescue techniques in situations where a firefighter has become trapped or otherwise incapacitated.
Later, Vanatta hopes the department can stage a live fire at the house. A real fire would give firefighters an opportunity to train on new thermal imaging systems. Vanatta also hopes to show how quickly a fire in one area of a house can spread to other areas of the house, and what effect factors like open windows have on a fire.
"This is how we learn," said Captain Daniel Fox, who helped oversee the training. Multiple crews from different fire stations ran through the training course to give everyone a chance to train.
"They're great people here, really hard working and really young," said Vanatta.
The new series of training activities have an extra importance for a department that has seen a lot of turnover recently. In addition to providing new opportunities for younger firefighters to learn, Vanatta said it is a good way for him to learn the department and what everyone has experience doing.
"Eventually you're going to put all of that into practice, and you want to be as ready as you can be," Vanatta said.
General News on 03/22/2017