THUNDER BAY – Most out-of-towners come to Thunder Bay to visit family, stare at the Sleeping Giant, or to shop.
Not Ashley Siemens.
A volunteer firefighter for the past two years in Emo, Ont., she comes to Thunder Bay to learn how to become a better firefighter, to take those skills back to her community and keep herself and the public safer while she’s on the job.
Siemens is one of about 250 firefighters from throughout the region taking part in this year’s three-day FireCon exercise, which combines classroom learning with hands-on training that helps refresh their skills and keep them up-to-date on the latest firefighting techniques and equipment.
It’s vital learning, she said.
“We don’t have this where I live. I live in rural, Northwestern Ontario. It’s all random little fire departments in little towns. We don’t have trainers who are willing to travel that far, due to their schedules or the cost for us,” Siemens said on Friday morning at Thunder Bay Fire Rescue’s fire training centre on Hammond Avenue.
“It’s a huge opportunity.”
Siemens was most excited at the chance to fight a fire in a burning building, something she’s not had the opportunity to do in her brief career as a volunteer at her hometown department.
“If you go an entire winter and you don’t have any house fires, and all you have is vehicle issues, then you’re a little bit out of practice for structure fires,” she said. “We get to come here and we get to renew all that information and the training that we’ve taken, and put it to work here and get some extra information from other departments and other skills.”
Thunder Bay Fire Rescue Deputy Chief Greg Hankkio said the annual event, now in its 29th year, covers everything from leadership to live fire, automobile extrications, firefighter survival and search and rescue training.
“One of the main goals and purposes of this is firefighter safety and community safety. It serves both of those purposes and ultimately it gives our firefighters in the area the skills they need to serve the communities they live in,” Hankkio said.
He added the vast majority of the firefighters taking part in the training are volunteers, which means they aren’t solely focused on their department obligations.
“They have jobs as well, so they’re dedicating their time to the service on a volunteer basis. If you think about that, in order for them to train once a week or a couple of times a week, with everything else they have going on in their lives, this is a really good opportunity for them to spend two or three days training to enhance their skills,” Hankkio said.
