The Hays Fire Department has cut back the amount of water it uses in training exercises, but not the number of drills.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings this week, the Hays fire department is training at 17th and Harvest near Kiwanis Park. Chief Gary Brown explains how reducing water usage affects the drills:
This week’s drill is slow-going, just two firefighters operating one ladder truck. That’s not an ideal situation, according to Brown, but it happens in real-life. “This scenario is as if we’re short-handed. We want to get water on a structure fire as soon as possible to keep it from spreading to adjacent buildings,” he says.
The public is invited to stop by and watch the training tomorrow morning between 9:30 and 11:30a.m. You may notice the firefighters seem to be walking slowly when hauling hoses:
“You can’t run in this equipment without becoming overheated, and then you can’t work anymore. So part of this training is for the firefighters to learn to pace themselves since they may be on a scene for three or four hours with no relief,” explains Brown.