2015 Fire Department Annual Report

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2015 Annual Report • Fire Department • St. Anthony Village, Minnesota 16 | Page FIRE DEPARTMENT TRAINING 2015 SUMMARY By Training Officer Ryan Anttila At the end of each year the St. Anthony Fire Department looks at our training needs and creates a schedule for the upcoming year. Just like most years, 2015’s training topics covered a very wide range of topics. The fire department has increasingly been required to increase its knowledge base to prepare for the types of calls it can respond to. The St. Anthony Fire Department schedules regular drills twice a month on Mondays as well as a department meeting on the last Monday. In 2015 our training goals included a wide range of topics from Active Shooter training with the St. Anthony Police Department, to tabletop scenarios using some of the more complicated buildings in the city. We try to maintain a base of knowledge (i.e. firefighting and emergency medical training) and increase our abilities to respond to the increase in more complicated, less frequent emergencies, such as a hazardous materials incidents. Our department purchased new software which will benefit our current and prospective officers. This software has the ability to take pictures of buildings within our city and create a realistic fire-fighting scenario simulation. We can use this to more closely recreate the conditions that would be found by a crew arriving. Our officers will need to base their actions and planning on what they are seeing in the software. The conditions in the simulation can be adjusted based on what the actions taken are and will give a visual cue on the outcome of those actions. While newer types of training were used, our department still needs to train for various fire calls. Our department utilized the unoccupied Wal-Mart building to practice tactics that are not used as often, as well as trained on underground garage fires, and firefighter safety. Our fire training is often highlighted by our department attending a “live fire” drill at the St. Paul Fire Department training facility. Our members are run through several scenarios requiring all members to utilize the skills they have acquired over their careers. This training uses real fire and closely recreates the conditions found in an actual structure fire. In closing, our members routinely exceed the NFPA required training of 24 hours of continuing education per year. We will continue to provide the training we see as required and necessary to continue the high level of service we provide.