Local fire departments train on Fort Hood
By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
For three days last week, Copperas Cove fire fighters received some hands-on practice which could make the difference between life or death for them, or the ones who call them for help with a fire.
All three shifts of the Copperas Cove fire department had one day of training on Fort Hood and were not alone in participating in the exercise. The Copperas Cove contingent was joined by four members of the Kempner Volunteer Fire Department and three Fort Hood fire fighters, said Copperas Cove Deputy Fire Chief Gary Young.
“The Fort Hood members were from the training division of the Fort Hood Fire Department and served in as host to the facility as well as served in the capacity of Safety,” Young added.
The real-life scenarios the fire fighters encountered real fire and real smoke.
“The scenarios were geared to give our staff the ability to work as a team in situations that involved team work, communication and problem solving,” Young said.
This year’s training seconds focused on search and rescue of victims in a building that was on fire as well simultaneous coordination of multiple teams. Each day, the groups participated in five different scenarios.
This is the second year Copperas Cove has attended training on Fort Hood, although Young said the department breaks down the whole process and works on smaller portions throughout the year.
The training doesn’t cost the city anything, Young said.
“Just as we would ask Fort Hood to help us fight a big fire or they would ask us to do the same, essentially if either department has a resource available to them, they are willing to share it if possible. Fort Hood continues to be a partner to the community and we appreciate it greatly.”
The reason exercises like this are important to the fire fighters is that it gives the department the opportunity to train realistically, with a lot smaller risk.
“Let’s face it lighting a regular building on fire in order to do fire training bears a very high risk. It is very important that we are able to light fires in a building so that we can experience the heat, smoke, lack of visibility and confusion while still searching the entire building and being able to remove a victim and not having to worry about the building collapsing due to burn-out.”
Young said everyone, from the newest member of the team all the way up to Fire Chief participated in the exercises.
The department wasn’t without direct support from a number of Copperas Cove residents.
Every day, members of the Citizens Fire and Public Safety Volunteer Association showed up on Fort Hood to provide food, water, and hygiene services to the firefighters performing the exercises, something for which Young expressed his appreciation.
“They provided us the ability to clean up after a long morning of training so that we could eat a meal that they prepared for us each day, and for us to replenish the fluids that were lost while we were training,” Young said.