| Cottonwood
hosts firefighter training
If you saw thick, brown smoke coming from the Cottonwood Municipal Airport the weekend of June 5-6, it wasn’t a plane crash. The Cottonwood Volunteer Fire Department sponsored a Flashover Awareness Training school at Cottonwood that weekend. A Homeland Security Grant that was awarded to the Department last summer funded the Training and training was provided with cooperation from Lewis-Clark State College and instructors from Coeur d’ Alene and Post Falls Fire Departments. All area firefighters were invited to attend the training and earn college credits in Fire Science. 
A total of 32 firefighters from Cottonwood, Ferdinand, Nezperce, Winchester and Idaho Department of Corrections in Boise spent the weekend in training, which included some classroom time and a lot of time in the “burn trailer”. This trailer is specially designed to re-create a flashover event and train the firefighter in flashover recognition, control and prevention. The trailer interior reaches temperatures up to 800 degrees and demonstrates the events leading up to and includes an actual flashover. Firefighting has become more hazardous in recent years with the advances in early detection, faster response times and advanced personal protection equipment that allows the firefighter to go into a burning structure sooner and stay in longer. In the past, the flashover had usually occurred before crews had even arrived on the scene. Flashover awareness saves lives and property through prevention and control. The Cottonwood Volunteer Fire Department would like to extend their thanks to the Chief Maines and his crew of instructors from up North, the St. Mary’s Ambulance crew for providing us with medical monitoring and standby all weekend, the City of Cottonwood for the use of their facilities and equipment, Stacie Jackson for the wonderful lunches both days and to all the firefighters who participated and helped out all weekend. Your sacrifice of time keeps us all safer. |
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