Washington County, Maryland Firefighters spent their Easter Weekend training with a Mobile home, which was donated to the Clearspring Fire Company. Firefighters Eric Ramacciotti and Dick Prather oversaw the training evolutions that day starting out around 08:00.
New and Veteran firefighters took part in mock scenarios to simulate a working fire to help educate personnel on different operations, which took place on a fire ground. Eric Ramacciotti broke up all crews into groups of four. The crews rotated after each scenario giving each team a chance to operate at a different level from Engine Company to Incident Command Staff. Each time a team rotated, it would switch as to who the team leader was. This gave many newer firefighters a chance to learn how to operate with the Incident Command System.
Small burns were conducted in the morning for these different evolutions that were simulated. Each team took turns operating as Engine Co., Truck Co., R.I.T. Team, and Command Staff. During the afternoon, room and content fires were simulated for fire suppression scenarios. During these scenarios, one or two rooms would be lit off and teams would take turns advancing hose lines into the structure. Ramacciotti had three teams in place at all times. They had the initial attack line on side A, a back up line on side A, and a R.I.T. team in place on side C with an additional attack line. Teams were able to get 4 or 5 good evolutions in that afternoon before letting the home burn.
Personnel were also able to train with Foam at the site thanks to Fairplay Company 12. Company 12 participated and brought their newest Engine 121 to the burn to train with their Compressed Air Foam System. Newer firefighters worked with the Foam during the final stages of the burn protecting exposures and such. Training evolutions began wrapping up around 15:00 that day.
Companies who participated in the burn were Clearspring Fire (Co.4), Williamsport Fire (Co.2), Maugansville Fire (Co.13), First Hagerstown Hose (HFD E-1), Hancock Fire (Co.5), Clearspring EMS (Co.49), and Washington County Air Unit.
