It was a busy weekend of wildfire training with sprinkler systems going off, wildfires igniting and aircraft and fire trucks zooming over and around Penticton.
Fire chief Larry Watkinson called the second annual Wildland Urban Interface Wildfire Training Symposium sa国际传媒渋ncredible,sa国际传媒� because of the real-world experience firefighters had.
On Saturday, they participated in classes looking at structure protection, leadership skills in a wildland environment, tactics and boots-on-the-ground training.
Exercises involving live fires and air support all happened Sunday so firefighters could experience what it was like to fight a real fire to prepare for wildfire season.
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Residents in Campbell Mountain, Sendero Canyon and West Bench got to experience some of the training, said Watkinson. Sprinkler systems were set up around several homes in the sprinkler protection class.
sa国际传媒淚t basically creates a humidity bubble around the home so when a fire comes to it, it flattens down to the ground and sprinklers protect the house. Thatsa国际传媒檚 the whole theory behind it,sa国际传媒� he said, adding that fighting wildfires is much different from fighting a standard house fire.
Heads up today! This group of municipal along with 鈦︹仸鈦� will be training LIVE today in .
sa国际传媒� Penticton Fire Dept. (@pentictonfire)
sa国际传媒淲e have to employ new strategies and tactics to teach so when a Vancouver firefighter comes up from the lower mainland, who has maybe never been in a wildfire before, has an understanding of how to deal with and mitigate and set up protections for those homes.sa国际传媒�
Clear and accurate communication is vitally important when fighting wildfires, Watkinson added.
More than 200 firefighters from 26 different municipalities learned this in exercises involving aircraft dropping buckets of water on hot spots ignited in the forest.
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sa国际传媒淲esa国际传媒檇 have to have communications between the air officer and the firefighters on the ground so that nobody got a bunch of water dumped on them, and got injured doing that,sa国际传媒� he said.
sa国际传媒淭here is a lot of training as it relates to the communications on how air crafts work with firefighters on the ground when you are actually containing a fire.sa国际传媒�
Itsa国际传媒檚 an intense weekend of training, he added.
sa国际传媒淚tsa国际传媒檚 very structured, and highly disciplined because people are training in context and it is the real world,sa国际传媒� he said. sa国际传媒淚f you goof around, you could lose a fire, and it could get bad really fast.sa国际传媒�
But despite the potential for things to go south, Watkinson said the two-day training symposium, sa国际传媒淲ent off without a hitch.sa国际传媒�
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sa国际传媒淲e believe itsa国际传媒檚 important to train this way,sa国际传媒� Watkinson said. sa国际传媒淲e had great participation from all the different agencies. We had people from all over the province so it was great to showcase Penticton.sa国际传媒�
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Robin Grand
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