Riverland Fire School of Austin is once again hosting Firefighter I, II, and Hazmat classes in Pine Island. Firefighter students from Byron, Lake City, Pine Island, and Zumbrota are all busy taking classes to learn the skills needed for modern fire service. Students will attend a mixture of classroom-based training, as well as many hours of hands-on training. In addition to learning the traditions of the fire service, they will also learn everything from rescue to fire suppression techniques.
On Saturday, October 6, students were busy learning how to deploy ladders. Although it may appear to be a simple practice, techniques are required to ensure that a firefighter’s safety is priority on a fire scene. Between appropriate carrying technique to setting the ladder up correctly, students drilled until perfection was achieved.
“We learned multiple carrying and ladder-raising scenarios for safe and practical ladder handling,” said Pine Island rookie Ryan Buchholz, “We also learned about proper inspection and maintenance of the ladders, too.”