By Mark Squibb/November 25, 2022
A trio of fire departments across the Avalon banded together recently to bring a specialized training team to the province for a weekend of training.
“The Fire Training Associates are a group of career firefighters from different departments across New Brunswick who have come together and created multiple courses that really go in depth in certain fire service topics,” said Witless Bay Volunteer Fire Department Fire Chief Jack Gatherall. “They take the skills we’re already familiar with, and really break them down and show us how to become more efficient with those skills through multiple courses.”
The Victoria Fire Department and Holyrood Fire Department have both hosted the group in previous years, but Gatherall felt it was time for Witless Bay to host the training.
“This will hopefully become an annual event,” said Gatherall. “I don’t know that Witless Bay will host it next year, but between the three fire departments, we’re going to try and keep this going every year, whether it be in Victoria, Holyrood, or Witless Bay.”
He said all three chiefs are fairly young and get along well with one another, leading to close relationships, and added the departments are exploring the possibility of hosting concurrent sessions targeting different training areas in the future.
“That way we can hit a broad scope,” said Gatherall. “Say a certain member was not confident with their pumping operations or capabilities, or their driving operations, they could go to Victoria, whereas Witless Bay that same weekend could host searches and advancing lines into a structure fire.”
The training, which was also attended by members of the Bay Roberts Fire Department, touched on a number of topics, including rapid intervention, large hose advancement, search patterns, mayday responses, and command structure.
One of the most helpful sessions, said Gatherall, was that on forcible entry.
“Forcible entry in the fire service is not just popping a window anymore,” said Gatherall. “A lot of modern houses have security systems, stores have bars over their windows, they have stop bars that prevent doors from being kicked in. So, we took what we already had a little bit of knowledge of, and really advanced it. We learned techniques about how to force inward and outward swinging doors, padlocks, chain-link fences, we even learned how to cut apart a garage door, so we could force our way quickly through a garage door if we needed to get into a house.”
Gatherall said the training instilled a greater sense of confidence among the firefighters, especially newer ones, in their skills and with the equipment.
“We had a prop that was nothing but downed wires that was designed to tangle you up and get frustrated,” said Gatherall. “That builds confidence, so that when you get a fire call, they’re going to remember their training. When they can’t see their hand in front of their face, and they’re panicking, they’re going to remember that they’ve done this in training, that they kept calm, they remained cool, and that they’ll get through it… It’s one thing to tick a box and say that you’ve done a course, but we’re building confidence in all of our firefighters to be able to, on a weekly basis, take a ladder off a truck and go up on a roof and cut a hole in that roof. We’re building confidence that, if they need to do a search, they know what to do. They didn’t do it once just to tick a box on a piece of paper.”
Gatherall said the department is working to ensure all members have a minimum of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1001 Level 1 Training, which requires about 100 hours of skills training followed by an exam.
The department’s members will also be participating, as is tradition, in the annual Kinsmen Club of Witless Bay Santa Claus Parade.
With Christmas season approaching, and Old Man Winter having already made a grand entrance this past week, Gatherall reminded folks to switch over to their snow tires if they haven’t already, be careful when plugging in Christmas lights, and keep Christmas trees well watered.
