It is a rare opportunity for fire firefighters in the File Hills area today, as they will be getting training experience through a controlled burn of a house on the Star Blanket Cree Nation.
The First Nation has donated a vacant duplex to be burnt down.
“There have only been a couple of other opportunities that we’ve had where we were able to utilize live fire training. One was with some vehicles that were donated, but this is more of a bigger scale,” said Pierce Pellerin with Saskatchewan First Nations Emergency Management.
Firefighters from Peepeekisis Cree Nation, Okanese First Nation and Starblanket Cree Nation, along with area fire departments will be participating.
“We will be training and practicing interior attack operations, ventilation operations, defensive fire operations [and] we will touch on some building construction,” Pellerin explained.
Pellerin says the firefighters will be debriefed following their training, calling today’s exercise as a valuable experience for those involved.
(Photo courtesy of treehugger.com)