On Oct. 10, Mayor Karen Elliott and councillors John French, Armand Hurford, Doug Race, Eric Andersen and Chris Pettingill all took turns going through a maze, putting out a car fire and dousing a structure fire.
It was an event hosted by Squamish Fire Rescue called Fire Ops 101.
“It’s so important that local leaders who make decisions for the safety of our neighbourhoods have a detailed knowledge of our services to ensure we have enough firefighters on duty and that we have the tools we need to be effective for the needs of our community,” wrote Kyle Derksen, Squamish Fire Rescue’s training officer in an email to The Chief.
Derksen said the car fire scenario forces participants to connect a truck to a fire hydrant and pull a fire hose to extinguish a car fire.
The building fire scenario involved students going inside a training building with hoses to extinguish a fire on the second floor.
“Each training scene is carefully designed to reflect realism and to allow students to understand each firefighters’ role,” Derksen wrote.
“My most memorable piece of the day was being able to see our firefighters build relationships with our community leaders. These firefighters were able to give the inside scope on the inner workings of an emergency scene.”
