Fighting fire with latest technology
Virginia Beach hosts training for first responders
VIRGINIA BEACH — Hundreds of firefighters and paramedics from across the state descended on Virginia Beach this week to learn about the most up-to-date firefighting and life-saving techniques, cancer and mental health awareness, and to check out new gadgets, equipment and technology.
The group came together for the annual Virginia Fire Rescue Conference at the Virginia Beach Convention Center and the city’s fire training center.
Virginia Beach has been hosting the event for more than two decades, and this year’s was the largest with more than 1,000 registered attendants and many more drop-in visitors, according to Battalion Chief Michael Carter, who also serves on the board of the Virginia Fire Chiefs’ Association.
“The biggest thing about this conference is the training,” Carter said. “Virginia has a lot of really good progressive things happening” in firefighter training and education.
Among the topics covered were how to respond to, control and command different types of structure fires, such as single-family homes, apartment complexes, and high-rise buildings, Carter said. Ladder skills, vehicle extractions, and improved life-saving techniques were some other areas addressed, he said.
Sessions about cancer and mental health awareness, as well as the warning signs to watch out for, and the latest research on the subjects, were especially well-attended, Carter said.
“Those are really big issues for us,” he said.
At the convention center, dozens of fire and other emergency vehicles filled the enormous space. A truck from Loudon County, where a volunteer firefighter was
killed and several others injured last week when a house exploded, was parked near the entrance with a black cloth draped across its grill.
Boys and girls wearing red plastic firefighter helmets that were given out
roamed around the vehicles and struggled to climb inside the tall trucks.
Among the equipment on display were all-electric fire trucks, drones with thermal imaging that can help find hot spots at fires and locate lost or trapped individuals,
and blankets that can be used to isolate and control electric vehicle fires, which are much more difficult to put out when the battery catches fire.