Rare Live-Fire Training Exercise for Firefighters in San Luis Obispo
Jarrod Zinn
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Several staged training operations are occurring over the next two weeks for Central Coast firefighting and law enforcement agencies.
This hands-on type of training isn’t easy to come by.
It takes a joint effort from several different agencies to provide hands-on simulation training like this, and property acquisitions for these purposes don’t exactly clog the phone lines.
San Luis Obispo city officials, firefighters and county firefighters worked together to acquire a defunct property that was slated for demolition.
It’s 20 acres and contains 2 houses.
“We’re just appreciative of the city of San Luis Obispo for allowing us to use this structure,” says Ryan Grebe, SLO County fire department’s public information officer. “And we have people coming out from the city to train as well.”
The fire departments are taking advantage prior to its demolition, staging special live-fire training exercises for both veteran and trainee firefighters.
“We’re doing our initial hose lays, first in pulls, first stretches to the front door on an initial structure fire, which is going to be kind of your standard structure fire,” says Greg Baranek, Avila Valley’s station captain. “So we’re going to come in and we’re going to take command and we’re going to initiate a fire attack, essentially get water on the fire.”
Controlled fires are ignited both indoors and outdoors to recreate real-time conditions.
“We have, you know, firefighters that have been around for a long time. And then we have brand new employees that are working for us. So there’s a mix of experience levels,” says Grebe. “And it’s great because we get everybody together and we get to work together and, you know, build that teamwork and camaraderie.”
Each structure will be used for various training purposes, including demonstrations of fire evolution, as well as rapid response, intervention and survival.
“Unique to this drill—It’s due to the second structure,” says Captain Baranek. “We have the ability to run a R.I.C. operation, which is a rapid intervention crew. In case one of our crews were to go down inside of the structure, we could send in a dedicated rescue component.”
Participating firefighters say this training is invaluable to prepare trainees, keep skills sharp, and maintain cooperation among multiple agencies.
This critical training will be taking place over the next two weeks.
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