Firefighters Converge on LG for Training

Fayette County Firefighter Association had training in La Grange the weekend of January 21-22. Four classes were offered to Fayette County fire departments as well as any outside departments that wished to attend. The classes offered were for firefighters with multiple levels of expertise from the newest firefighter to the experienced firefighter.

The newest class offered this year was Electric Vehicle Fire and Safety taught by Hazard 3. With more and more electric vehicles on the roadway and not much education on how to extricate and fight an electric vehicle fire it had become necessary to find an expert to educate area firefighters about electric vehicles and the safety precautions necessary. The electric car training class had four hours of classroom training and four hours of hands-on skills that allowed each student to be more aware of the hazards that electric vehicles entail. An Emergency Response to Propane Incidents was offered by a certified Railroad Commission Instructor who provided the safety features from a bobtail propane truck, propane tanks connected to houses, portable tanks, as well as many other scenarios and options.

Ground Cover was offered by the Texas Forest Service. This class covered the fundamentals of wildland fire. This introduced to new members in the fire service tools used to fight fire as well as strategies for wildland suppression.
Experienced fire members learned new techniques that the Texas Forest Service is using to extinguish wildfires as well as grass fires.

The Art of Reading Smoke was instructed by a TEEX representative. This course allowed both new and experienced firefighters to learn how to “read” the color, the rate of flow, and the density of the smoke within a structure. This is a powerful tool that a firefighter can use in predicting fire behavior, deciding tactics, and preventing firefighter injuries or deaths.

Fayette County Firefighter Association would like to thank the following businesses in helping us make this year’s weekend training a success. La Grange ISD for allowing the use of their High School facility, Hampton Inn for availability of our Instructors who stayed overnight, The Railroad Commission of Texas for allowing their Instructor to teach a class, Tex Propane located in Schulenburg for donating the use of their bobtail truck. We would also like to thank The Texas Forest Service for teaching a class, Hazard 3 for teaching the Electric Vehicle class, Jackpot Iron & Metal Inc. on FM 609 for donating their scrap yard and providing cars for the skill exercises. For providing extrication tools and assistance with the tools for the Electric Car Class we would like the thank Siddons-Martin/Holmatro.

Last but not least a thank you to TEEX (Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service) for providing instructors and their representative in assisting in getting the classes together and providing certification to the fire fighters who attended.