Practice, practice, practice! That’s what training is all about and with the warm weather of the Summer comes more opportunities for outdoor training. That is exactly what happened on Saturday, June 23, in the Village of Tina, Missouri. With Bogard, Missouri, being geographically in the center of Carroll County and the headquarters of North Central Carroll Fire Protection District, my department is called upon a lot to help our neighboring departments in Automatic Mutual Aid. We are a very rural agricultural community operating Station 1 in Bogard and Station 2 in Tina. The water source we have for rural fires is mostly ponds. We have several dry hydrants throughout the county.
Since water has to be hauled to the fire by tankers, we train for water shuttle operations. On Saturday, June 23, we ran a drill. We pretended that the Tina Community Center was the fire. Carroll County E-911 toned out North Central as a drill, then per Automatic Mutual Aid protocols, toned out the surrounding departments for tankers. Tankers from Norborne FD, Stet FD, Carrollton FD, and the two from our own department participated in the two hour drill. Tankers dumped water into two port-a-tanks at the Tina community center. Then traveled approximately four miles to the fill-site at a dry hydrant where an engine refilled them. During the two hour drill, five tankers shuttled 30,000 gallons of water equating to pumping 250 gallons per minute. I feel the drill was a huge success. It was a success because of training and networking with surrounding departments. We depend on each other. Thanks to all who participated.
We even had guests from as far away as Paris FD and Madison FD come to observe. The FFAM Second Vice-President and good friend, Grant Oetting from Higginsville FD came to show his support. Then as we were taking a group photo, another familiar face appeared. Missouri State Fire Marshal Tim Bean arrived. What a surprise! We were very impressed with the dedication and support this man has to his “boots on the ground” in our great state.
After everything was put back in-service, my wife, Lachrissa Smith had a great meal prepared for all who participated. We enjoyed a fish fry and desserts and got to visit with our brotherhood.
So, all in all, a very successful day. Many lessons were learned. Lots of discussion was had on basic firefighter training from Fire Marshall Bean, Region A Mutual Aid by Grant Oetting, and of course lots of stories shared about past calls. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of your Summer. Stay Safe, and stop by the Missouri State Fair Fire Department during the State Fair and visit.
FFAM
