FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KMJ/KFSN) — Fresno County firefighters are working to sharpen their skills as they prepare for real-life scenarios.
On Sunday, firefighters from CAL FIRE Fresno, Fresno County Fire and the City of Selma gathered in Fowler to go over different emergency drills.
“We’re focusing on first instructional firefighting skills and scenarios command control, which means a radio etiquette the way that we set up our incidents and the way that we run our incidents,” said Fresno County Fire Battalion Chief Juan Navarro.
The City of Fowler granted access to firefighters so they can conduct routines within this old structure before it’s torn down and replaced into a new police department and senior center.
“It’s not very often that we get an opportunity like this to come and train at a standing structure facility. Most of the time, we’re at our training facility where it’s very common for our guys to go in once a month, so they know the building. This, on the other hand, is something new,” explained Navarro.
Navarro says, even though there is no actual firefighting happening during these drills, the practice is still helpful to fire crews.
“We have smoke machines, we have dummies that we play in scenarios to get our firefighters to think along the lines of what true emergencies are going to be. Really starting to sharpen their skills and give them a newfound viewpoint on what emergencies are going to be in real life scenarios,” said Navarro.
This training is expected to last until January 10th.
So, if you’re in the area and see smoke or a lot of fire crews until then, just know it’s all for training purposes.
