By Kelly Leveque-Weesner, Lieutenant, Mancelona Fire District
I would like to express my total appreciation and enjoyment in the Michigan State Firemen's Association, Fall Fire School, held at the Ross McMullen DNR center in Roscommon.

Many of the departments in Michigan are not afforded the large budgets to maintain the expensive training that some of the large cities have, never the less our quality of training has not suffered. Maybe our organizers need to shuffle some paper or pull out some miracles but we always have phenomenal classes. This year in fact there were the choice for Rapid Intervention Training or Live Basic Fire Attack; each class also included a full day presentation and physical training in MAYDAY. Let me say, OH, MY SWEET JESUS!

The class I took was Live Basic Fire Attack. It totally made me look differently on how to attack a fire. We teach in Firefighter 1 and 2 on the search and rescue aspects but there is nothing specific on Fire Attack that is combined with other classes. I learned a lot from this class, things that I will be able to implement in my firefighting. This will better assist me and the other members of the department to get in to a structure and put the fire out quicker. Putting the fire out quicker will allow less property damage and more importantly more lives saved. In our area unfortunately we all know that living in such a rural area is a great thing, however when it comes to fire, the price we pay for increased privacy also hinders notification of some fires. Fire is not noticed as quickly in rural communities as it is in urban or metropolitan areas. We need to have every possible advantage over fire.

The MAYDAY class was the one that blew me over though. We all hope and pray we never have to call it. Even more we never want the thought of losing our partner or crew member. We prepared this weekend so that should any of us face the issue of being lost, trapped, out of air, in danger or trouble or anything else, we know how to handle it. We learned the 5 things you need to say when you have problems. First and foremost though you must say MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY then give your location, unit, name, air supply and resources. Location: in basement or on 2nd floor. Unit: your truck number or even 1st attack team. Name: your name or identifier name, Air Supply: how much air you have left. Resources: what do you want or need? All of these were given in the acronym L.U.N.A.R.

The training started for me by first I put on all of my Personal Protective Equipment, Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA), and totally ready for real fire. I had to walk the stairs a few times. This was to allow me to increase my breathing with exertion. Then I had to crawl on my hands and knees through a dark room, making my way to some steps. As I climbed, I was then thrown off a platform into a box to simulate falling through a hole or something. I could not change positions. The other people were my Incident command upstairs. I would have to call mayday and then do as they instructed. I had to have a plan in my head in case I had no air supply or my alarm did not work. I can tell you I was perfectly paced with my breathing but when I fell into the hole. My breathing increased instantly. I was able to give my MAYDAY call and my L.U.N.A.R. but I definitely have an appreciation of how easy it would be to not remember this stuff while in a panic and your life is in danger. Even more what if my partner fell and I were helpless or could not perform at all. This is definitely a class that should be taught in Firefighter 1. I encourage any firefighter, probie, officer, chief to take this class; you will come out enlightened on another facet of the fire service that is taken for granted.

Socially, I am so glad that I attended this weekend with the people who went down. We had our Chief Ed Sayre, myself, Rick Riley, Lisa Trever, Steve Middleton, Dan Butler, Chris Cool and Christine Lauwers. We all talked, hung out, ate together all weekend. We also got to talk and learn from people on other departments. We had some heated discussions, some not so heated. Some people vented about some issues they have experienced in the fire service. Mostly though we realized the positives and some changes that we need to make. All in all though, I realized that I am so grateful to have met those people. I am also so very proud and honored to be part of such a wonderful department.

As with any family we may have our ups and downs, but when it comes to an emergency response, everyone sets everything aside and we all do our jobs to the best of our ability, training and equipment.

Our township and community is wonderful for allowing the members to increase their training outside of our area. We are given the opportunity to grow in our training; which allows us to better provide for our community. We are better prepared for our community when accidents, fires or any other emergencies happen. Thanks again to all of the taxpayers and township board members, without your support we would not have such a well trained and professional department in our community.

Kelly Leveque-Weesner

Lieutenant

Mancelona Fire District