HANCOCK COUNTY — Sitting on the curb in the back parking lot of Fire Station 45, Taylor Kleba was dressed in full gear, including her helmet. The Wisconsin firefighter was waiting for her chance to go inside the Sugar Creek Township Fire Department training barn and take part in specialized drills.
Kleba has been a firefighter for the Lake Country Fire and Rescue Department, located just outside Milwaukee, for a year. She and hundreds of firefighters from all over the United States are in Indianapolis this week taking part in the Fire Department Instructors Conference, the largest fire and emergency services gathering in North America.
As part of the event, which is designed to provide comprehensive training for firefighters, officials with the Sugar Creek department and the Greenfield Fire Territory played host to hands-on classes at their training facilities, touted as some of the best in the state.
“You come into an event like this with the mindset you’re going to leave here with a lot of really great tools for fighting fires and saving lives, information I can take back to our instructors,” Kleba said.
When the conference was only in the second day earlier this week, Kleba said she had already learned a lot from the various instructors who come from all over the United States to share their knowledge.
“I did an eight-hour hot class yesterday,” Kleba said. “I learned a ton and had a lot of ‘light bulb’ moments.”
A hot class is designed to get a firefighter back to the basics of firefighting by working on skills through various stations like hose, forcible entry, search, ladders, masking up, water supply and more.
“The thing that has been most beneficial for me so far that I will take back and share is learning about the best proven practices and principles,” Kleba said.
That’s the idea behind the conference, said instructor Nate Larkin, a lieutenant with the FairFax County, Virginia, Fire and Rescue Department: Making sure firefighters leave knowing more than they did before they attended the conference.
Larkin was overseeing a training operation called “Drilling at the Speed of a Flashover,” an exercise that hones strategy and tactics under duress. Larkin noted Sugar Creek’s training facility was ideal for the lesson; it’s the second time he has visited during the annual conference.
“If we’re doing things right we’re going to learn as much from the students here as they do from us,” Larkin said. “For every student who goes through, we want to make the experience better for the next one.”
The mission is to train the people visiting the sites in New Palestine and Greenfield so that they can take the knowledge home.
“Our methodology fits all facets of the fire service,” Larkin said of the lessons taught at sites during the two days of hands-on training.
The goal is to teach the instructors tools to succeed in everything they’re going to encounter in all firefighting scenarios.
“We want to set firefighters up for success,” Larkin said. “We want a ‘thinking firefighter’ out there to have all the right answers in their heads.”
Larkin had four years of field training and worked with instructors who had the same knowledge in hopes the crash courses will make an impact on the firefighters going through them.
They use a reality-based training — the same as a professional athlete does — and it makes a big difference in getting realistic experience while pushing their bodies to the maximum.
“We’re kind of like industrial athletes,” Larkin said.
Due to the fact total conference numbers were down this week because of COVID concerns, organizers were able to run the 50 or so firefighters at through many different learning scenarios at the Sugar Creek facility compared to years past, when those attending only got one trip through the lesson.
“We could really drive in the methodology and what they need to be doing,” Larkin said, who just finished his 16th year in the fire service.
Tony Bratcher, public information officer with the Sugar Creek department, was part of a safety team on hand to make sure all the instructors and firefighters participating in the drills stayed safe.
“We love hosting this and helping out as much as we can,” Bratcher said. “We took this old barn and made it our own with the help of a lot of our guys.”
That’s something Sugar Creek Township Trustee Bob Boyer said he’s proud of. He insisted the training barn be built up through the years and used for training rather than being torn down. Boyer stopped by to see the training one day this week before heading to Indianapolis to check out some of the latest in fire equipment.
“We’re pretty caught up with all our new gear, but it’s always good to see what is out there,” Boyer said.
The same type of training was occurring at Station 2 in Greenfield. Corey Breese, the public information officer for the Greenfield Fire Territory, had a busy morning making sure the hoses were working properly for the firefighters who were part in a commercial fireman operations class.
“It’s pretty awesome getting a chance to watch all these different firefighters come in with their different techniques and learn new things they can take back and train their guys on,” Breese said.
The fire territory played host firefighters from some 20 fire departments during a morning training session Tuesday, Aug. 3. He said they, too, learn something different every year, getting a chance to see other firefighters work.
“Even if we’re not participating and running equipment like we’re doing, you’re learning, and it’s a big pickup for our department,” Breese said.
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The Fire Department Instructors Conference is taking place through Saturday, Aug. 7, in Indianapolis.
The FDIC offers thousands of fire and rescue professionals from around the United States quality world-class instructors, classrooms, workshops and the most innovative products and services available to the industry displayed by over hundreds of exhibiting companies.
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