Some members of the Williams Lake Fire Department will be put to the test this weekend.
Deputy Fire Chief and Training Officer, Brendan Foote said Varinder Kamboj, Jessica Sutherland, Cody Nunn, and Dino Lecomte, will be in 100 Mile House for their live fire evaluation.
“It takes about a year and a half to two years of training for members to get their NFPA-1001 Professional Qualifications Certificate. Part one of the components of that certification is about live fire. This weekend is interior entry on a structure fire.”
Boyd said they have a burn building down in 100 Mile House and the Department takes the recruits there, light fires inside the burn building and they have to demonstrate they can go in safely and effectively and extinguish those fires.
“They’ve been training the last couple of months specifically on that tactic and they’ll be doing that tomorrow (April 12). If they are successful tomorrow they will be signed off, we’ll be able to put them interior in a structure fire if we need to. There are other components of the live fire module that includes a car fire, a dumpster fire, applying foam, and hose line management.”
If they are successful in their training tomorrow at the Burn Building Boyd not that gives the Department the ability to be teamed up as an attack team and sent inside to fight a structure fire.
“They’re probably eighty percent done their certification right now so they’re is alot of stuff they can still do.” Boyd said, “This is one of the bigger modules, it’s one of the most hazardous things that we do going inside on a structure fire so this really big for them.”
The live fire evaluations will be done by Williams Lake Fire Chief Evan Dean, Tallon Rolston Assistant Chief and Captain Kevin Heppner.