Dixie Fire School 2003

“People call the fire department when they don’t know who else to call,” Woodrow ‘Woody’ Will, Fire Training Coordinator for the State Fire Commission, said in regard to the comprehensive curriculum provided by Dixie Fire School. During the weekend of March 7, 2003, beginning and veteran firefighters experienced both classroom and practical training. A wide variety of courses were available, including EMT classes, farm rescue scenarios, chaplain training, a ‘Basic Boot Camp,’ and leadership courses designed for company officers. Dixie Fire School offered vivid proof that the term ‘firefighter’ is far from all-inclusive because, as Mr. Will pointed out, “firefighters do much more than just fight fires.” When a victim is trapped inside a vehicle or is caught in farm equipment, when a factory has a chemical spill, when a child is missing in the woods, fire and rescue teams respond. Fire schools across the state prepare participants to handle the many challenges they will face while on duty.

Kentucky firefighters must complete 150 hours of training to become certified and must fulfill twenty additional hours each year to maintain their certification. There are fourteen regional fire schools statewide that are conducted almost every weekend during the spring and fall seasons, through which firefighters may take classes to meet the state’s requirements.

Though certain courses are available at every school, some training programs are presented according to the needs of a school’s particular region. Still other courses are offered on an alternate basis, such as Dixie Fire School’s vehicle extrication training, which was offered last year but was missing from the 2003 schedule. Demand for training is a primary factor in scheduling the classes, Mr. Will said. When a regular course begins attracting fewer applicants, it may be suspended for a year or two. He said the vehicle extrication class will be available again next year.

Dixie Fire School is the third largest in Kentucky. Attendance has increased dramatically over the past two decades, from 100 firefighters in 1984 to approximately 700 this year. Mr. Will said there were more firefighters who wanted to attend, but who had to be turned away due to limited classroom space. If Elizabethtown had a convention center, Mr. Will said, the greater accommodations would allow the school to easily accept as many as 1,000 firefighters. He was pleased to note that state funding will be increased next year due to the annual growth in attendance to Dixie Fire School.

The First Annual Dixie Fire School Firefighter Team Challenge took place in the Pritchard Community Center parking lot on the evening of Friday, March 7, 2003. Mr. Dale Dobson, Farm Safety Field Officer for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and chief of the LaRue County Fire Department, emceed the event. Elizabethtown Fire Department Chaplain Doug Finlay opened the contest with a prayer, and the national anthem was played. Thirteen teams participated.

The Firefighter Team Challenge is a four-station relay course. One firefighter completes each evolution before passing the baton to the next team member. Each participant wears full turnout gear and air pack.

At the first station the firefighter carries a high-rise pack (two 50-foot sections of 1 ½ inch hose) up the stairs of a 1 ½ story tower. The firefighter drops the hose in the designated area, hoists a 50-foot donut roll of 2 1/2 inch hose to the top of the tower, and descends the stairs.

At the second station the firefighter stands on a Keiser Force Machine and uses a nine-pound mallet to drive a 120-pound steel beam five feet.

The third firefighter advances a charged 1 ½ inch hose 75 feet, opens the nozzle and sprays a target for accuracy.

The fourth firefighter lifts a 175-pound “Rescue Randy” from behind and drags the mannequin one hundred feet to the finish line, completing the course.

The following fire departments competed in the Dixie Fire School Firefighter Team Challenge: Central Hardin (two teams), LaRue County, Buffalo (two teams), Elizabethtown (two teams), Sonora, Radcliff, Pleasure Ridge Park, Glasgow, Custer and Erlanger. Team Captain Michael Hagan, Chris Ross, Chuck Masterson and Jason Buckles of Elizabethtown Fire Department Shift Two took first place.

A Farm Safety Symposium on Agri-Terrorism Response was held in the Pritchard Community Center upon conclusion of the Firefighter Team Challenge.

The field beyond the parking lot is littered with catastrophes straight out of a farmer’s worst nightmare. A hay baler has pulled in a victim’s upper body to the waist. A second victim lost control of the four-wheeler she was riding and impaled herself on a spike jutting from the front of a tractor. The victims are mannequins, and these accidents are training scenarios created as part of the Rural & Urban Agriculture Response Course offered at the Dixie Fire School.

Instructor Dale Dobson, Farm Safety Field Officer for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, stands before a group of firefighters alongside a silage wagon that is hitched to a tractor. “The scene you’re about to see is based on a real incident,” he tells them, and introduces his assistant. “This is Jason Hodge. When Jason was four years old, his arm was torn off by a silage wagon.”

Dobson gives his students leave to explore the trailers filled with tools and equipment that they may use to effect the rescue. When they reconvene beside the tractor, Hodge distributes five vests randomly among the firefighters, thus assigning an Incident Commander and placing others in charge of operations, EMS, rescue and safety. Dobson leads the group to the rear of the silage wagon where a mannequin is trapped, its right arm caught up to the elbow.

The trainees take in the scene before them and turn uncertainly to Dobson. When a real life emergency occurs, however, they will not have the luxury of an instructor to answer classroom questions and walk them through a step-by-step rescue procedure. They will be on their own with the responsibility of making instant and critical decisions. Dobson thunders, “You’re first on the scene! What do you do?”

The firefighters take action. Dobson flings questions into the group, and the students learn by thinking, answering and acting on their heightened awareness.

“Is this scene safe? Have you turned the tractor off? Is the wagon empty or full? Have you stabilized the equipment so it won’t roll or shift while you’re working? Who’s in charge of safety? Make sure your people have their visors down when they’re cutting metal!”

Confidence rises among the trainees as they address the emergency. They begin to pull together and work as a team. They make some smart decisions, and Dobson tells them so. They determine that the victim’s arm has been amputated, so they cut the sleeve off his shirt and package the victim on a backboard for transport to the hospital. The firefighters continue working until they have freed the arm, which is then wrapped, packed on ice and sent to the hospital via a second ambulance. Afterward, instructor and students discuss the rescue and what might have been done better, faster or differently. Dobson is pleased with their work and doesn’t hesitate to let them know.

The firefighters will meet more challenges before the weekend is through. As in reality, not all their rescue attempts will be resolved with happy endings. Sunday afternoon a victim trapped under the bucket of a backhoe will die before the trainees can get her out. The firefighters will have to free a driver who is pinned beneath his overturned tractor. Four people riding two ATVs will wreck them in a creek; three victims will require rescue. The firefighters will work to save mannequins at some accident scenes and live actors at others.

The Rural & Urban Agriculture Response Course is sixteen hours of intense training that takes place on Saturday and Sunday during the annual Dixie Fire School. It is Dale Dobson’s job to prepare his students for the crises they are certain to face as fire and rescue personnel working in a farming community. His practical exercises provide a taste of the brutal realities they will encounter on future accident scenes so that when they do respond to such an incident, they will be ready to assess the situation and decide the safest and swiftest method by which to address the emergency and accomplish the rescue.

Photographs by Steven Townsend. Articles by Angela C. Townsend. Code 3 Images wishes to extend a special thanks to Woody Will, Randy Skinner, Dale Dobson, Rusty Todd, Mike Zinke, Johnny Ellis and Charlie Clark.

Dixie Fire School Photo CD containing more than 400 copyrighted digital photos is available for $25.

Send check/money order to Code 3 Images, P.O. Box 1191, Elizabethtown KY 42702-1191.