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2016 Annual Report • Fire Department • St. Anthony Village, Minnesota <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />18 | Page <br /> <br />We had the use of an SCBA maze which was used to practice skills used in the rescue of <br />potential victims or firefighters caught in a fire, or smoky environment. This included skills that <br />can be used to get out of a basement window, or follow a hose-line out of a structure if one <br />becomes disoriented. <br />A large focus for last year was pumping. We use our three engines to pump water from the <br />hydrant to the fire. Pumping with our trucks is a skill that is practiced at length when a <br />firefighter is going through their first years on the department, but can be neglected as other <br />topics need to be reviewed. We dedicated four of our drills to pumping, including classroom, <br />and hands on training with each of our trucks. <br />Our largest drill of any year is our live fire drill. We use the St. Paul Fire Department’s training <br />tower to flow real water, and put out real fire. This drill utilizes all the skills our firefighters <br />have; from taking command, to pumping with our trucks, to search and rescue and fire <br />extinguishment. We are able to give our firefighters a more realistic, but controlled environment <br />to practice the skills we train on all year. We analyze and review this drill to see where our <br />strengths and weaknesses. This way we can adjust our training the next year so that our live fire <br />skills stay where they need to be to protect our community. <br />The end of our training year culminated with practicing several skills, such as reviewing <br />ladders and our rope rescue capabilities, SCBA and turnout gear skills and familiarity, and our <br />annual fitness agility test. We did have several events that resulted in a change of plans, we had <br />severe weather cancel one drill, and a few drills were combined in order to fulfill other training <br />that became required. As usual, our members did a great job during these drills, and were able <br />to accommodate the needs of the department. <br />Throughout all of this, our members completed quarterly EMT training, and four of our <br />members are on the North Suburban Hazardous Materials Team which meets monthly. Our <br />officers attended an additional 40 hours of training. Our 3 rookies had over 400 hours in <br />classroom, review, and hands-on training. Many of these hours included equipment <br />familiarization, including driving and pumping. The last statistic is that our members attended <br />almost 400 hours of outside or online classes. Including a railway incident class in Pueblo <br />Colorado.