When most of us think of the Dunkin' Donuts Center downtown, we are reminded of hockey games or maybe a Providence College basketball game with a roaring crowd.
Not so for Scott Jensen.
“This is like a lab,” he said. “We can do whatever we want here.”
The special hazards Warwick firefighter spoke as he stood on the catwalk about 60 feet over the ice, with a harness and a hard hat. Along the catwalk, ropes snaked down from the rails or across the rink.
Thirty-six firefighters of the 220 or so in the Warwick department are receiving advanced technical training over the next few months. They’ll each log 320 hours of training. In addition to the rope activities, they will also deal with simulated rescues from confined spaces, wind turbines and vehicles, as well as rescuing those caught in machinery and structure collapses.
The department received a $1.1-million federal grant and money from the city to pay program costs, including firefighters’ salaries and equipment. At the exercise Thursday, firefighters simulated a rescue of a person who might be trapped in a crevasse or a well. Harnessed to ropes, firefighters went halfway across the rink, lowered themselves to the floor of the arena, harnessed another firefighter (the victim in the simulation) and pulled that person back up and across to the other side of the rink.
“A lot of the firefighters have gone through the basic training,” said Deputy Chief of Safety and Training Frank Colantonio. “This is a little more advanced training.”
And just like Jensen, Colantonio appreciated what the Dunkin' Donuts Center had to offer.
“It presents us with a different animal to play on,” he said.