Lake Superior College’s Emergency Response Training Center hosted some visitors from afar–the Rochester Fire Department used the Center for their required fire ground training.
The Rochester Fire Department is the first external group to use the recently completed multi-level facility.
Firefighters used mock-up buildings called burn boxes to test their ability to go into a structure fire and rescue people.
According to fire officials, this hands on training is pivotal to test their crews’ skills before encountering the real thing out in the field.
“You can’t feel heat from a book, you can’t see smoke like this from a book,” said Rochester Capt. David Worstman. “This helps make them more confident when they go to the next fire, makes them more proficient at it to be able to pull the hose lines and actually put water on true fires.”
“It’s a very big deal.”