For a moment, it almost appeared as if the rear of Belleville Fire Station 2 was on fire Thursday afternoon as plumes of smoke could be seen rising above the roof by passersby on Moira Street.
The thick smoke, however, was part of a fire-training exercise by Belleville Fire and Emergency Services in partnership with the Ontario Fire College’s mobile training unit.
Three instructors from the college imparted their best modern techniques to professional and volunteer firefighters to help them tackle stubborn blazes more effectively while remaining safe and risking their lives doing it.
Newly minted Deputy Chief Kyle Christopher, a 20-year-veteran, told The Intelligencer the training by the college was highly sought after given high demand by fire services across the province for the expertise. He thanked OFC instructors for the invaluable training that runs until Sunday.
Instructors were on site as smoke billowed out of a mobile training apparatus that simulates live firefighting conditions inside a burning home. Firefighters entered the smoke-filled environment where three mock scenarios featured a burning kitchen stove, a couch on fire as well as a simulated reclining chair.
Live training is critical to attacking fires in the safest manner possible, Christopher said.
“We’re hoping at the end of this training that our firefighters have a better awareness of fire conditions, fire growth, to effectively extinguish the fire and keep us and the public safer,” he told The Intelligencer. “It allows them to hone their techniques to be more effective. Our first priority is life safety so we want to get people out of the fire and rescue them.”
“Obviously public education and following the fire code is the main thing but if those two items fail and we have to go into a house to rescue somebody, we want to make sure that our skills are the best that they can be and we can give people, that unfortunately get in a situation like this, the best chance of survival.”
Belleville Fire and Emergency Services’ 78 full-time firefighters and 50 volunteer firefighters took part in the training while neighbouring fire services in the area were invited to take up any training vacancies over the four-day training exercise, Christopher said.