The Danville Fire Department is hosting the Champaign Fire Department for three days of training along the North Gilbert, Townsend, and Robinson area. Two of the homes on Robinson and one on Gilbert are targeted for demolition by the city, so in the meantime the fire department can use them for training purposes. As Training Officer Captain Ryan Allison explains, it allows them to add more training to the agenda.
AUDIO: All summer long we’ve been training on houses, training in different spaces; we’ve done everything from search to hose techniques, rescuing firefighters that have fallen through a floor. Now, we’re up on roofs cutting holes.
Allison says it’s great to have Champaign involved; because like Danville, they have lots of new people on board.
AUDIO: They’re anxious to get some people up on roofs and do training. It’s not a skill that we do very often; so our guys get a good look at doing things from a different department’s view as well.
For Champaign Division Chief in Charge of Training J.P. Childers, it’s a wonderful chance for everyone to learn.
AUDIO: We don’t often get opportunities to work in real structures. A lot of times we work in burned buildings, and we always know the layout and how they’re put together. These structures are more like what we’ll actually fight fire in.
The training exercises began Tuesday (Oct 31) morning, and will continue Wednesday (Nov 1) and Thursday (Nov 2) mornings, from around 8 AM until 12 Noon.
