Recruits putting out a fire during training on Oct. 19 2020 (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

Firefighter training in a COVID world

Oct 19, 2020 | 12:55 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – 2020 has been a monumental year for the world, with the COVID-19 pandemic top of mind for many.

However, life rolls along and the pandemic hasn’t stopped local fire crews from training.

The Lethbridge Fire Department’s latest class of recruits wraps up their training this week and will be ready to hit the frontlines of the city.

29-year-old James Akerley is one of the class’ 12 recruits.

“I’ve been [working as a paramedic] in EMS since 2012. I’ve always kind of wanted to come down to Lethbridge because of the integration. I’ve always wanted to have both the fire side and the EMS side and have them work together for the rest of my career,” he said.

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The Dräger building, one of the many training structures available for firefighters in Lethbridge (Lethbridge News Now)

Akerley added firefighter training is a lot more physically demanding than training to be a paramedic.

“Something I didn’t know about is that there is a lot more science behind what we do on the fire aspect; reading smoke, reading fire path, everything like that,” he remarked.

During Monday’s training, firefighters displayed a tanker fire scenario.

The tanker prop used by the recruitment class (Lethbridge News Now)

“It’s essentially to show off what would happen if a tanker caught on fire…how do we proceed with putting that out in a safe manner,” Akerley explained.

“You saw nine guys doing that at one time, so that’s generally the best way to approach that situation.”

Akerley said the eight-week program had an adjusted schedule because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Because of COVID, we’ve had to kind of expedite things. We’ve had various in-house training sessions on the EMS side, which is usually done in the last 20 days of training, so we’ve had the 40 days.”

He added that the 12-member recruitment class is quite varied.

“We have a fella that’s here [who is] 50-years-old and a younger fella that’s 23, so kind of all over the place,” Akerley remarked.

COVID BULLDOGS

Lead trainer for the recruits, Les Hilliard, said the class is “lovingly” referred to as the “COVID Bulldogs”.

“COVID obviously, [has caused] us to adjust and overcome our traditional ways of doing things. When I saw them, they all had their masks on and all looked like a bunch of bulldogs,” Hilliard said.

Hilliard watching recruits train (Lethbridge News Now)

He added that at first, the department was very limited in how many people they could group together for training.

“Our ranks were being, on the EMS, kind of decimated through isolation. No one ever did get COVID from our service yet, thank goodness, but we still had to isolate and follow the provincial guidelines. Because of that, these 12 recruits were brought in a little bit early,” he said.

“Usually we do the fire training and EMS training, and then they start working on the street. In this particular class, they started on the street and then we brought them into the fire training.”

Hilliard noted that the fire training centre has undergone some upgrades over the years, updating its materials to be environmentally friendly and friendlier for their firefighters.

Les Hilliard showcasing the control panels inside the Dräger building (Lethbridge News Now)

The lead trainer commented that cancer is one of the main health risks for firefighters, but changes to their training materials has helped reduce that risk.

“We retrofitted our training facility here some years ago using a propane-nitrogen gas and a mineral-type oil to provide the smoke, the fire and the flames,” he said.

“We have deadman switches and basically, the props can be shut down at any time if there’s a problem, if something goes wrong…it’s very safe for the firefighter training and very safe for the environment.”

A training tower used by Lethbridge firefighters (Lethbridge News Now)

James Akerley said Lethbridge is “very concerned about life safety”.

“They’re very concerned that, basically, everyone goes home at the end of the day. We all want to be able to retire at 65,” the recruit said.

“There’s a lengthy decontamination process if we have any debris on us. We always make sure that we have things called ‘fire wipes’ to wipe off our exposed skin areas after a fire before we go home.”

Akerley added that firefighters have their own decontamination bags the service provides for them, so they can wash up properly after a fire.

As for the upgrades mentioned by Hilliard, Akerley explained that mineral oil has no carcinogens and propane is a clean-burning product.

He said the training process is strenuous, but so far, it’s been worth it and he’s excited to help the residents of Lethbridge.