To observe the Prince Albert Fire Department's latest training session you would have had to have been looking up. (submitted photo/ PAFD Facebook page)

By Ronald Quaroni

Practice Makes Perfect

P.A. firefighters undergo specialized training

Aug 22, 2019 | 12:18 PM

Prince Albert residents looking skyward near the river Wednesday afternoon may have noticed firefighters rappelling from the downtown building, as well as lowering practice dummies.

It’s important for members of the Prince Albert Fire Department to have this training for certain rescue situations.

“It’s possible you’d have someone that was stranded on a platform, window washers, that sort of thing,” Deputy Chief, Alex Paul told paNOW. “We rappel off the side of buildings to practice scenarios where we’d have to move down a building, rescue somebody and continue onto to the ground with them.”

Paul explained firefighters with the training have the ability to employ this rescue technique, regardless of height, on any building in the city which would could be 15 to 16 storeys tall.

Real-life scenarios requiring these rescue techniques are not common, which according to Paul, is why the training becomes vital.

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“The training is obviously very important because you don’t want to be learning at the time that it’s necessary, the time of an emergency,” Paul said. “It’s not the type of call that comes in on a regular basis. We don’t get the hands on practice with real scenarios so we have to practice training scenarios.”

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Ron.quaroni@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @RonaldQuaroni