KOOTENAI COUNTY, Idaho — More than 200 Firefighters from around the Inland Northwest participated in a weekend of fire and rescue training in North Idaho.
The training was held in four area locations: Lake City High School, Coeur d’Alene Fire Station 2, Q’emiln Park and the Kootenai County Fire and Rescue training center.
Firefighters chose from one of several training sessions to attend for most of a day.
Those sessions included lifting a fallen tree from a crushed vehicle. Crews also set a mock room on fire for trainees to learn how to identify the origin of a fire.
Some of the participants practiced knotting ropes and scaling down the side of a building.
“Each of these stations…train firefighters to go back to their communities to do a better job and to provide a better service to their community,” said Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Chief Warren Merritt.
“I think that there’s a number of things that they’re going to take away. One is teamwork, comradery and then the actual skills that they picked up in the class,” Merritt said. “This increases people’s network, and through those networks they were able to partner with the agencies on a whole other level."
Merritt said the training has taken place every spring for about 30 years.