For the last several years, Frenchtown Rural Fire District has hosted crews from the New York City Fire Department for mutual training.
Public Information Officer Mel Holtz introduced Lieutenant Fred Carlson with the FDNY Robotics Division.
“The fire department sent a bunch of our chiefs at the time out to different regions,” said Carlson. “Northern Rockies was one and the Southwest incident management team was the other one. The idea of implementing us and seeing what large scale events can do, how to scale them up, scale them down as far as tracking for finance and resources, it really just made sense. And the best education is just to be put into it and be absorbed in the environment. So the ability to come out here and train with the folks out here in Montana, which is partial to my heart because my aunt lives in Billings, and I love it out here because it’s far away from the canyons of New York City.”