SYLVANIA TOWNSHIP FIRE DEPARTMENT
Training Overview
Walk in to any Sylvania Township Fire Station between normal business hours and you’ll observe some type of training taking place at your local station. Firefighter/EMT’s consistently train at a high level to help deliver the most reliable and efficient care to the residents of Sylvania. Training in the fire service is important for a variety of reasons, with the most important being life safety. Frequently, firefighters put themselves in dangerous situations to care for victims and the training of these emergency responders ensures they will be able to respond to the next call.
In Sylvania, firefighters work 24-hour shifts and conduct much of their training around their typical station duties and emergency calls. A training calendar is distributed in advance by the Deputy Chief of Operations and outlines the type of drill and the officer responsible for coordinating the presentation of the material. The material may be presented in a combination of formats including lectures and practical training evolutions. Our department is fortunate to have a wide variety of members who have received specialized training in topics such as high-angle rescue, hazardous materials, and explosives. Often times, these personnel with extensive backgrounds in specialized subjects may conduct the training or training may be done by outside resources. Physicians and other professionals often provide input into these training sessions to provide members with the most current and dependable training possible.
Throughout the month of June, STFD personnel utilized acquired structures near the 6400 block of Monroe Street for a wide variety of fire ground training scenarios. An orchestrated effort by many STFD personnel provided safe, coordinated, and effective training for all STFD personnel. With the help of A-shift line personnel, D/C Jeff Kowalski, Lt. Jeff Young and Lt. Scott Smith outlined training objectives, produced training documents and handouts, prepped the structures for live burns and supervised the live training evolutions. All training on the site was conducted as outlined in NFPA 1403, Standard on Live Fire Training
Evolutions.
All three structures on the site had a role in the training evolutions. Building # 1, the primary burn building was prepped for 11 different burn stations. This house was also outfitted with an emergency egress sprinkler system installed by Premier Fire Protection Inc. and donated for use throughout the use of the structure. Firefighter/ Paramedic D. Boyers suggested this idea after seeing it in a similar situation at State Fire School. Building # 2 was identified as the “skills” training house. In this building, several static scenarios were performed including a hose maze, firefighter entanglement and reduced profile evolution, structural floor collapse rescue station and a fire cause and determination station.