Training exercises this week providing real-world scenarios for SLO County fire agencies
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. - San Luis Obispo County fire agencies are going through a week-long series of intense training exercises at a donated home in rural Arroyo Grande.
"This training is invaluable," said Chad Fleming, San Luis Obispo County Fire Department South County Battalion Chief. "My cadre tries to do one of these a year within the County of San Luis Obispo due to the fact that WE have a county that doesn't run a lot of structure fire, so we want to provide our firefighters with every opportunity and all the repetitions possible to be able to turn all those skills into muscle memory, which makes us efficient on the fireground, which means our service delivery to our communities and citizens is at a high level."
The San Luis Obispo County Fire Department is the lead agency heading up the operation and described the training as an opportunity to simulate real-world scenarios, allowing firefighters to practice critical techniques such as fire suppression, search and rescue, ventilation, and incident command.
"We can talk about the concepts of firefighting in a classroom environment, but there's no substitute for live fire training," said Ryan Grebe, San Luis Obispo County Fire Department Public Information Officer. "When we can get out on the fire ground and put those concepts into play in action, pulling hose, doing searches, practicing our command and control, that's where all these firefighters get a lot out of the training and are able to implement it on the fire ground for real incidents."
In addition to the San Luis Obispo County Fire Department, there are neighboring agencies who are taking part in the drills each day.
The side-by-side exercises allows the various fire departments the opportunity to train with each other and work together as they do when providing mutual aid during an actual emergency.
“To be able to run calls with and get reps with them is huge," said Eddie Stefani, San Luis Obispo County Fire Department Fire Captain. "So when we ever get that call either into their area or our area, we're able to do a smooth transition and just put the fire out together.”
The exercises are being conducted all week long at a hillside residence in rural Arroyo Grande, which has been donated by the homeowners who are planning to build a new home on the five-acre site.
"We thought we'd be doing give them the opportunity to do some hands on training," said homeowner Kim Shorer. "At the same time, we're not filling the landfill with all of our materials in our home. So we felt like it was a win win situation. And CAL FIRE's really, really excited to have this opportunity. It's just like Cal Poly motto 'Learn by Doing.' We really, really appreciate the fact that they can have some real life experience in saving lives and running through all these drills and all the different things they're doing inside the house are different scenarios, so they're actually putting the firemen through different scenarios and they don't know what they're walking into."
The public is advised smoke may be seen in parts of South San Luis Obispo County during the operation which will run through Friday.
