The training session gave them a realistic look at a rescue operation.

HEBRON – Area firefighters have been in training and recently applied some of their skills as the old South Paris Fire Station became a lesson ground.

The building was filled with theatrical smoke, creating a dense, thick, fog for the firefighters to search through. A maze of obstructions had been set up for the firefighters to crawl though, all representing barriers a firefighter could easily encounter in everyday firefighting. Openings only 17 inches high, a maze of electrical wires and ropes, and a 15-inch wide wall breech were just some of the obstacles.

“Do I leave my buddy” was the question from one firefighter to an instructor. The firefighter was almost out of air and he was part of “RIT 1” a Rapid Intervention Team sent in to rescue an injured firefighter. His team had located the downed firefighter and they had started to find their way out the building, dragging the victim with special ropes and carries learned in previous classes. A second RIT crew was on its way in to meet the first crew and pass off the victim to complete the rescue.

“It’s tough to force these decisions on firefighters, no one ever wants to leave another firefighter,” says Vicki Schmidt, an instructor and firefighter for Hebron and Buckfield fire departments and coordinator of the training. But when you or your team is low on air and another team is on the way, the best thing to do is to follow established protocol and safely exit the building. “It’s better to help rescue one firefighter than be part of a bunch more who run out of air.”

The Fire Ground Operations course, a 32-hour program, was sponsored by the Hebron Volunteer Fire Department and was paid for by money obtained by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.

Instructors from the Frandford Mutual Aid Fire Training Association assisted with the program. Hebron received more than $56,000 last year and the training brought together items purchased by the grant. Incident management and mayday communications, use of thermal imagining cameras and positive pressure venting were all facets of the training and practical application day.

More than 35 firefighters from Hebron, Minot, Buckfield, Livermore, Rumford, Dixfield, Paris, Otisfield, Mechanic Falls and Oxford participated in the training.