BARRHEAD - It was an experience they will never forget and will pay dividends for years to come.
That is what Barrhead Regional Fire Services (BRFS) firefighters Gina Kneller, Tyler Kalmbach and Hielke Vandermeulen told Town of Barrhead at the June 25 council experience regarding attending the Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) in Indianapolis in late April.
From its meagre beginnings in 1929, the conference/tradeshow with less than 300 firefighters attending from only a handful of U.S. states to a truly international conference where more than 30,000 firefighters from over 50 countries routinely attend to participate in training seminars, classroom sessions and hands-on workshops led by world-renowned experts.
For several years, on a two-year basis, the BRFS has been sending three BRFS members based on merit to the conference. The funds come from the BRFS training budget, part of the operational funding shared equally between the Barrhead municipalities.
Vandermeulen said he concentrated on different rescue scenarios, including forcible entry, for the first two days of the five-day conference. "Instructors challenged us to break into various structures and reinforced machines using tools we were not necessarily well-versed in," he said.
Vandermeulen said he also participated in multiple rescue training seminars, including those one would find as part of a small rural community, such as a victim trapped under debris like warehouse racking or a person suspended in scaffolding.
The final hands-on training scenario involved rescuing a person from a burning building of a sea-can.
"To simulate flashover conditions by igniting flames just over our heads," Vandermeulen said, adding the temperature in the sea cans would reach over 950 Fahrenheit.
The remaining days focused on classroom training sessions, of which over 250 were available.
Vandermeulen said he chose sessions focussing on officer-based training, including courses constructing training props on a budget and officer awareness.
On the final day, he said they attended the tradeshow, where firefighting equipment providers showed off their latest and greatest in gear and firefighting apparatus.
Kneller, who has been with the BRFS for close to 10 years, said that she had been to other conferences outside the first responding industry, and she thought she had an idea of what it would be like, but she was wrong.
"It was amazing. It is hard to describe. I can't put into words how important attending this conference was to me," she said.
Kneller said she attended various sessions on tactical firefighting, thermal imaging, smoke reading, situational awareness, and breathing efficiently.
The latter, she said, was called "Warrior Breathing".
"It was about how to use every last bit of air in your tank and ensure you are efficiently breathing to survive," Kneller said. She also participated in several sessions focussing on firefighter mental health and leadership.
However, she said, the most important part of the conference, at least for her, was the networking.
"To be able to connect with people who do what you do is unbelievably wonderful," Kneller said. "Much of the learning happens is really on the side just by talking to other firefighters. And the sharing was phenomenal. They would give you their entire presentation so you could take it back to your fire department."
Kalmbach said he also attended several hands-on rescue training sessions, learning how to cut people out of safely mechanical apparatuses.
"How to take apart a vehicle, such as a big truck, safely, move trailers, even how to go through a school bus properly," he said. "See the composition of a school bus. Learn its composition's strong and weak points and how to make a hole safely to ensure people can get out."
Kalmbach added that the session topics were almost unimportant as they all had incredible amounts of practical information they could bring back to the BRFS.
But having said that, Kalmbach said he tried to attend sessions that would help him as an instructor.
Coun. Rod Klumph asked Kneller whether, during any of the sessions she attended on mental health, anyone suggested that firefighters were experiencing an extra strain on their mental well-being for what seems to be an industry-wide increase in the number of medical responses firefighters are responding to.
Town of Barrhead councillors have expressed their concerns multiple times over the last three years about the toll responding to increasing medical assistance calls on firefighters and that the province isn't adequately compensating municipalities for providing the service.
Kneller said not really, as the conference was international in scope and based in the U.S., the way fire departments responded to medical assistance responses differed.
But she added there were plenty of medical and paramedic sessions firefighters could attend at the conference.
"[Medical first-responder service] is something firefighters [from what I saw at the conference] are doing worldwide," she said. "Sometimes, I think it is a tall order to have people who are good at medical and firefighting because they are very different, but we train the best we can to understand how to help people best."
Coun. Dave Sawatzky asked if what the trio learned at the conference would be passed down to the other BRFS members.
Kalmbach said members attending this and other conferences can pass on their lessons during their weekly training sessions.
He added that they could also pass on the information better thanks to what they learned at the conference.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
