Despite heavy rain and lightning that interrupted practical exercises and drove students inside to wait out the Sunday afternoon storm, training was conducted at Dixie Fire School throughout the weekend of March 11.

Some of the 24 classes consisted of lecture and classroom work. Among them were Spanish for Emergency Responders, Firefighter Procedures and Protocol, Chaplain Training, and one course that covered both weather spotting and disaster animal management – teaching responders how to recognize the signs that dangerous weather is approaching, how to convey warnings to the community, and how to take care of both family members and animals that have become victims of an emergency.

Firefighters confronted reality in a controlled environment through practical exercises. On Saturday afternoon, propane spewing from a tank was ignited, erupting into flames that billowed fifty feet overhead. Teams of firefighters, accompanied by an instructor, advanced on the inferno from behind the powerful spray from two 1 ¾” hoses.

During Firefighter Survival & Rescue, firefighters practiced drills that taught them how to save themselves and rescue each other, while Basic Rope Rescue covered all aspects of rappelling, lowering techniques, and safety considerations.

Farm Rescue presented a wide range of scenarios in which victims portrayed by both people and mannequins had suffered accidents while operating various types of farm machinery or while riding four-wheelers.

The Basic Search and Rescue course included a mock search through the fields and wooded areas behind Elizabethtown Community and Technical College on Saturday evening. One human victim had been found. Students’ skills were put to the test as they navigated unfamiliar terrain in the dark, searching with flashlights for the other person awaiting rescue.

Live fire training began with a series of practice fires Saturday and concluded Sunday afternoon with the burning of a donated house on Sunshine Lane in Radcliff.

Among the other courses were Managing the Mayday, which trained students in fireground safety and how to respond to the crisis of “firefighter down;” Truss Construction, which taught aspects of both residential and commercial construction as affected by the spread of fire and the possibility of structural collapse; and Psychology of Disaster and Terrorism, sponsored by the Kentucky Community Crisis Response Board, which prepared students to provide psychological first aid to peers who are showing symptoms of critical incident stress.

In all, 125 instructors and support personnel trained more than 650 fire and emergency services workers during Dixie Fire School 2006.