VIDEO: Since Tuesday, the Kirksville Fire Department has been performing a range of training scenarios on Forest Lake at Thousand Hills State Park. The training allows the fire department to find and strengthen any weaknesses in protocol.
“This is kind of a scenario that we’ve had happen and we’ve had more large-scale events like this happen in the last couple of years,” Tyler Davis, Lieutenant at the Kirksville Fire Department, told KTVO. “More water emergencies, more, high angle emergencies, things like that. So anytime we can get out to do these kinds of trainings, it’s really good for the guys to get hands on experience, before the real-life emergency happens.”
Training doesn’t just improve emergency plans but also gives the department the chance to try new methods.
Thursday the firefighters worked on improving their location sharing, using a website called what3words to locate a dummy victim. The website works by creating a grid system over an area in which every square corresponds to a set of three unique words. This system makes it possible to share a specific location with anyone by sharing those words. The what3words website isn’t the department’s only new vital tool though.
“We have the drone that’s also available to use,” Lieutenant Davis shared. “That piece of equipment is kind of new. There’s a few of us that are licensed to fly it, but it has a large-scale capability. Especially with the thermal, it allows us to locate people whether it be on land or water.”
With various water-based emergencies possible every day, the department strives to be prepared for it all.
“Overall, everybody has done really well with this training,” Lieutenant Davis added. “It’s always fun whenever we get to put the training together and do the scenario-based stuff. It helps the guys kind of understand why we’re doing this and the importance of the knowledge we get from the training.”
