By Taylor Chartrand

Training the next wave of firefighters

Mar 2, 2019 | 6:13 PM

Brooks, AB – The Municipal District (MD) of Taber volunteer firefighters were in Brooks Saturday, to certify for their National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 10-01 Level 2 seal.

Under the NFPA, a level 1 firefighter has to be accompanied by a level 2, when attending any scene. A level 2 does not need direct supervision, but they do have to report to their supervisor.

“I’ve honestly wanted to do this for a very long time,” explained volunteer firefighter, Tiana Straga. “My background in college is emergency services, so I decided to join the MD of Taber Regional Fire Service.”

Straga says her decision to become a firefighter stems from an inner-passion of wanting to serve her community and she says the position requires a ton of empathy.

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“How would I want someone to respond if I was in that situation? That’s what I’ve always had in the back of my mind when responding to calls, is trying to figure out how to deal with the situation and be compassionate at the same time.”

Throughout the day, the 15-volunteers wrote an exam, followed by live-simulations to prove they could perform the tasks at hand.

Instructor and Brooks Fire Chief, Kevin Swanson, says this training was the real deal.

“This morning, we had them do a vehicle extrication with three different scenarios,” explained Swanson. “Following that, we have a propane vessel that will be shooting flames. They’ll need to spray it with water and we’ll simulate getting close to shutting off the valve. Then we’ll go over and light up the rail car.

Once that’s done, we’ll get them to use their foaming equipment and we’ll light up a big liquid fire to extinguish.”

Swanson had high praise for every volunteer that received their training today. 

“It’s a cold, cold day, but I’m very impressed with what I’ve seen. It’s mostly a young bunch, but they’re very excited to be here and obviously have been trained very well.” 

The training leading up to these exercises came from the leadership of MD of Taber Deputy Fire Chief,  Joseph Bruyere.

“With the MD of Taber, we have 117 volunteers out of 6 stations,” explained Bruyere. “So, we have representation from three stations here today. Barnwell, Taber and Grassy Lake. In the past three years, we’ve gone from about 3 fully trained firefighters to about 80 now.”

Bruyere says having fully-trained firefighters is the best possible scenario for his area of coverage.

“Pure safety. Last week we had a structure fire in my MD and we were able to quickly attack the fire from the inside because the people were trained to do so. The higher the training, the better off the person is.” 

Bruyere says from here, the tests will be sent to Edmonton for grading. Depending on how busy the Office of the Fire Commission is, the 15-volunteers should receive their Level 2 seal in a couple of weeks. 

After one and a half years of being a volunteer firefighter, Straga says receiving her Level 2 seal in a couple of weeks would mean the world to her.

“I would be so excited. I’ve been working for this for a long time and I would be so proud and honored to finally have it.”