The Moulton Fire Department is celebrating after one of it’s crew members passed one of the toughest training courses in the country recently.
Gunnar Walling is the fire member of the Moulton FD to be earn a Smoke Diver Certification. Only a few firefighters in the entire state hold the distinction.
The course is designed to push firefighters to their physical and mental limits. “It was daylight to dark every day. There were times I’d wake up in my hotel room sore and hurting. I completely destroyed a set of gloves,” Walling recalled the intensive training. “The program is designed to push you even further than you think you can go.”
Walling said he had to rescue an unconscious victim after crawling through a 2-foot hole while completely underground, work with a nearly empty oxygen tank and deal with an obstacle course filled with alarms, heat, and smoke.