Firefighter recruits with Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue and Clark County Fire District 6 received some important, hands-on training last week when they extinguished a fire consuming a house donated for those purposes.
Seven recruits with Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue completed their final major training of the recruitment process, Wednesday, Dec. 20, with the live-fire event at the location off of Royle Road in Ridgefield.
Volunteers, full-time personnel and hand-picked firefighter cadets with CCFR from area high schools also participated. Clark County Fire District 6 staff provided mutual aid, as the two districts share Station 151 near the Clark County Fairgrounds.
Battalion Chief Jason Leavitt oversaw the training event. He said the day was successful as it provided everyone with almost real-life training because the structure used was a residence, as opposed to a training structure.
“We come out here and you give those new recruits and folks that have been around a long time an opportunity to go in and fight the fire, learn about fire behavior, fire attack, different safety tactics, doing some search and rescue training, as well,” Leavitt said. “Ultimately, it’s a good deal for everybody. It allows our taxpayers to see that, hey, this is what we do. We get out and train so that they know that when we come to their house for an emergency that they’re going to get that top-quality training or response, as well.”
Fire cadets from Battle Ground, Prairie, Woodland and Ridgefield high schools were at the blaze, as well.
“They go through a lot of that entry-level training. They don’t get to go and do the live fire stuff like these groups are, but what it does is provide them further training,” Leavitt said. “They learn the why in the classroom, and they learn the how out here.”
CCFR leadership has been emphasizing recruitment in the fire district so it can continue to meet the district’s needs.
“The big thing for us this year is we’ve added on 29 new firefighters, which between this year and the previous year, we’ve essentially doubled the size of our department,” Leavitt said. “It provides better staffing, better response. This last group is all firefighter paramedics. Once they get through all their training, staffing for the department will have a paramedic on every apparatus of response.”
CCFR used to only have two staffing all the vehicles or only one career personnel, one volunteer, one part-timer, Leavitt said.
“So we’ve been able to grow exponentially, and it’s the busiest year we’ve ever had,” Leavitt said.
