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| Home » Real Events » Fire Ops 101 Events |
Lake Havasu Professional Firefighters Local 2974 Hosts Fire Ops 101
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On October 13,
2007,
the Lake Havasu Professional
Firefighters (L2974), with the
full support of its members,
hosted a Fire Ops 101 here in
Lake Havasu City.
The event was a huge success. In
attendance were the mayor and 5
sitting members of our council,
3 members of the media, 2
administrative personnel from
our fire department, 4
presidents of local service
organizations, and Arizona State
Senator Ron Gould.
We hosted an all day event at
our regional training center
here is Lake Havasu City and put
the candidates to the test. We
started the day with the Flash
Over Chamber to allow the
participants to feel what it is
like in a superheated
environment, while going over
the safety briefing you could
tell that they were a little
nervous and apprehensive,
especially when talking about
how hot it was going to be, but
when it was all said and done
everyone was all smiles.
After the Flash over chamber we
split the participants into
three groups and had them rotate
through three other activities,
these were a search and rescue
on the second floor of our
training tower, we had them
conduct bystander CPR on a
Cardiac Arrest patient while
they waited the 4 minutes for us
to respond, this was a very
eye-opening experience as they
did not realize how long 4
minutes could take. Last but not
least they performed a vehicle
extrication using our
extrication tools.
After the events were all said
and done we brought them into
the class room for some lunch
and a presentation on the
response capabilities of the
Lake Havasu City Fire
Department. Here we held no
punches in letting them know
that we need to improve our
response times and that we need
to secure our staffing levels,
we currently run 4-man engine
companies as long as no one is
off that day, we showed them why
need an increase in overtime and
why constant staffing engines at
the appropriate levels isn’t a
luxury but a necessity. We also
confirmed why we need to build
our 7th fire station in Lake
Havasu City and showed them the
response times to the area that
is to be built. With times to
this area well over 7 minutes we
proved to them why this was
unacceptable, which went fairly
well considering the mayor and
another council member live in
this area.
We had the full support of our
members with 25 guys showing up
off duty to donate their time.
Our Community Emergency Response
Team (CERT) was also on hand to
assist with our rehab unit. This
event was also supported by our
Fire Administration, they were
in attendance in full force,
from the chief on down, all of
the chiefs even participated in
the Flash over chamber to show
that they were still able to
operate on the front lines.
We are now going to pursue a
city ordinance to secure our
staffing levels. This will be an
uphill fight as our city as well
as the rest of the country is
experiencing a slight recession.
We believe we have a good shot
at securing these levels for now
and into the future.
The information that you have
provided me will be instrumental
in assisting us with developing
the city ordinance. Thank you
for you support and assistance.
-Mark Beals, Firefighter,
Vice-President Local 2974
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