2017 Fire Department Annual Report

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2017 Annual Report • Fire Department • St. Anthony Village, Minnesota 18 | Page V. Training By Captain Ryan Anttila As is the norm in the fire service, much of the St. Anthony Fire Department’s focus is on preparing our people for the types of incidents that they may encounter while working for us. Many of the calls we prepare for are the ones that happen very infrequently, but that does not negate the preparation needed. Training has been and will continue a primary focus for the St. Anthony Fire Department. Last year we focused on many different topics, including ice water rescue, firefighter survival skills, pumping, and natural gas incidents. A benefit to fire departments is the ability to have outside agencies come in and teach, or speak regarding a specific set of skills or situations. These experts bring a unique perspective or new techniques to our department, and provide specific skills along the way. We spend the much of the first half of the year getting the vast majority of our department to a Hazmat Operations level certification. This level gives our members the training to perform possible defensive tactics to assist with mitigating a potential hazmat incident. This class included 20 hours of training for everyone on the department and we were able to certify 14 members, 100% of our members passed the practical and written tests. A large focus for last year firefighter skills. Several of our drills were leading up to our live fire training. We wanted to refresh some of our basic skills, and familiarize ourselves with our equipment and work together as we would need to on a fire scene. Our largest drill of any year is this live fire drill. We use the St. Paul Fire Department’s training tower to flow real water, and put out real fire. This drill utilizes all the skills our firefighters