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Popularity of Cody Fire School grows
By Amber Peabody
This document was published online on Monday, May 05, 2008
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| Jerry Lamb of the Pine Bluffs Volunteer Fire Department crawls under poles as other competitors watch Friday during a competition at Cody Fire School. “It’s much harder than it looks,” Lamb said. (Photo by Jasen Hansen) |
The Cody Fire School is more popular than ever.
About 650 people were expected to attend the event last weekend. Last year’s school attracted about 500 people.
Coordinator Kelsey Kolstad said following last year’s school an instructor wrote about it for a national fire magazine.
“That made a big difference,” he said.
People from Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska attended the training this year, which offered more than 25 classes.
“This is my second year and it’s a fantastic school,” said Doug Fisher of Willow Creek, Mont. “It’s good for department morale to train together in an environment that’s not your own.”
New this year was the firefighter’s challenge, an obstacle course with fire related tests.
“I enjoyed it,” Fisher said. “It’s not the regulation firefighting combat challenge but it was tough, no doubt about it. It was difficult for an old guy.”
Competitors had to crawl under five wooden slats and then get on a sled and move a sledge hammer three feet. They then ran through five cones to a fire hose and dragged it to the other end of the course, where they knocked cans off a platform with a water hose. The challenge ended with competitors pulling a 50-pound weighted box and carrying a 110-pound dummy 50 feet.
“By the time you get to the dummy you’re exhausted,” Fisher said. “You just try and dig and keep going. You get encouragement from guys you don’t even know.”
Trophies were awarded to the top three males and females and the top four teams.
“It’s something different to do,” Kolstad said. “We try to do the golf tournament but don’t usually have many people participate. This has been fun and the people watching had a blast.”
On Friday firefighters checked out various vendors. On Saturday and Sunday they attended classes at the training center above Beck Lake Park and in classes around Cody.
New classes included forcible entry, recruitment and retention of volunteers, ventilation and petroleum tank fires.
John Wickersheim of Golden, Colo., has taught at the school for eight years.
“It’s one of the best schools in the country,” he said. “It provides volunteers a chance at the training they need at a level they wouldn’t normally get.”
During the weekend he conducted courses on advance thermal image cameras.
“This gives us the ability to see through smoke,” he said.
The cameras also can be used in search and rescue operations, checking to make sure hot spots are out.
“The class fills up pretty quickly because this technology is relatively new to firefighting.”
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