Four area fire departments are participating in basic firefighter training in Montana City, facilitated by the Montana State University Fire Service Training School.
Basic firefighter training has been happening in northern Jefferson County every other year or so for at least the past 20 years. It’s an opportunity for area volunteer firefighters to train with other departments, becoming familiar with each other and with National Fire Protection Agency standards. One positive outcome: when mutual aid is needed, working relationships have already been established.
Training together also helps individual departments by introducing their rookie personnel to safe and efficient response procedures so they may better serve their communities. This course is focused on structure firefighting; wildland firefighter training is conducted by the state Department of Natural Resource Conservation.
This year’s course began Feb. 21. The first week consisted of a course overview, followed by a demonstration and then hands-on inspection of students’ personal protective equipment (PPE) and self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA.) Training was also given on donning the PPE and SCBA in a timely manner — under two minutes.
Students were then coached by experienced and trained firefighters from participating fire departments during an extended practice session, followed by training in cleaning their PPE and SCBA masks properly.
The volunteer fire departments of Basin, Clancy, Jefferson City and Montana City are participating in this year’s training, providing both students and trained coaches. FSTS instructor Lyn Stimpson also happens to be fire chief of Montana City VFD, so he’s getting to work close to home!
Find more information about the training schedule at https://www.montanacityfire.org/training-calendar.cfm.
