VIDEO: The Manchester Fire Department holds “Pump Operator Training” a number of times each year as soon as the weather gets warmer. The 80-hour course involves a week of classroom work and then a week where firefighters go hands-on in the field. At a training location on Hilliard Street in Manchester around 10 a.m. Tuesday, Manchester crew members were learning the nuances of Pump Operator Training; Some firefighters were working the gauges on the pump truck, some worked the hose lines and two were perched atop the ladder around 80 feet in the air spraying water onto various spots to simulate fighting an actual blaze.
Battalion Chief Matt Leroux, the head of training for the Manchester Department, said, “Every new member of the department, once they come out of the fire academy, goes through this program.” Assistant Chief Gordon Macmillan said that there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to learning pump operations. “There’s a little math, some science, and physics, it’s all involved.” Macmillan said, and then added, “You’ve got 100 million things you are thinking about and the responsibility and pressure that’s on you is huge because the guys inside the structure that is on fire need you to get them water and to keep them safe.” Ultimately, Leroux said that pump operators have to be good managers on the scene of a fire.
