Top Notch Fire Department Training
THE CITY OF RIDGELAND FIRE DEPARTMENT TRAINING IS TOP NOTCH
RIDGELAND, MS – Over the last few months, the Ridgeland Fire Department has conducted numerous training sessions for the team that spans from physical fitness, extrication, dive, rope rescue, and ladder skills training.
Nathan Bell, the department’s Training Officer, oversees the coordination and planning for all training throughout the year. The many focus areas of training are crucial, and the foundation is physical fitness. The Ridgeland Fire Department conducts biannual physical fitness testing to ensure members can safely and effectively perform their duties. Testing is conducted in April and October each year.
During April, Ridgeland firefighters sharpened their skills using airbags to lift a vehicle off a patient, struts to stabilize a vehicle on its side, and the Jaws of Life to remove doors and roofs to gain access to patients. We want to give a special thank you to Capital Towing for donating the vehicles and staging them for the three separate training scenarios and to Northpark for providing the location for the training.
The City’s firefighters worked on their rope rescue and patient packaging skills. Firefighters were given a scenario where a worker had a medical emergency on the roof. Firefighters had to ladder the building, treat the patient, package the patient, and safely get the patient to the ground.
And finally, the team learned new diving techniques with the Public Safety Diver Survival Course designed to improve and elicit automatic responses in survival situations. Participants learn techniques to minimize the effects of emotional and physiological stress based on research on public safety scuba injuries and deaths over several decades.
Our training program is the most vital part of our department. The amount of training we conduct ensures we met the needs of our community – the safety of our citizens is our number one priority. We are not just firefighters – we are a multi-task agency skilled in many other disciplines, such as rescue and medical services,” stated Chief Matt Bailey.
