Rogers firefighters train counterparts from Saudi Arabia

ROGERS — A group of Saudi Arabian firefighters learned to fight fires the American way during a sixmonth stay in the city.

Eight fire chiefs, captains, fire equipment operators and senior firefighters arrived in April as a part of the International Fellows Program. The International Association of Fire Chiefs created the program with petroleum and natural gas company Saudi Aramco, which wanted team members trained in the United States.

“These are firefighters who have considerable experience in their own country,” said Fire Chief Tom Jenkins, who also is the president of the association. “They came to the U.S. to learn how we do things from a leadership perspective, teamwork and the culture of fire service.”

The visitors answered service calls alongside Rogers firefighters. They made capstone presentations and graduated from the program Sept. 22.

Ahmed Awajji, one of visiting firefighters, said the program taught him efficiency. The Rogers Fire Department uses incident checklists to keep command priorities organized.

“In the real world, there are people inside the house, and we don’t want to waste

time,” Awajji said during his presentation. “We want to save lives.”

Awajji customized the checklist in a way that could be used when he returns to Saudi Arabia.

“The benefits of having these checklists in my department are not to teach him to do his job, but to guide him,” he said.

Rogers is the third city in the nation to participate in the International Fellows Program. San Diego and Oklahoma City hosted other Saudi Arabian fellowship participants previously.

San Diego was the first to host, and the Oklahoma City Fire Department hosted fellows from September 2016 to March. The International Association of Fire Chiefs paid for all expenses.

“Our primary language and culture is different, but the brotherhood and communion of firefighters is the same regardless of what you look like and what religion you practice,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins’ crew led the group through a three-week fire academy to show them what to expect and to highlight the department’s job standards. The Rogers staff provided one-on-one mentorship and guidance throughout the entire experience.

Larry Hansen, battalion chief for the Oklahoma City Fire Department, said fellowship participants went through a fire academy during initial weeks, too.

Clint Bowen, a rescue captain in Rogers, was a mentor. He said he didn’t initially know what to think of the program.

“I’d had no interaction with people of the Muslim faith. I thought it would be interesting to set aside nationality and religion and see what characteristics we have that are similar,” Bowen said.

Hansen said his crew had some trepidation and curiosity also.

“Our firefighters had heard that Muslims treat women differently and ‘was it going to be an issue, since we have female firefighters?’” Hansen said. The fellowship participants had only ever seen women work in administrative environments. “We never saw any disrespect. I think they were surprised by the speed and strength of our female firefighters.”

Bowen said he and the Rogers crew asked the new arrivals about Islam and the Muslim way of life. They in turn asked Bowen about his Christian life, daily activities and pastimes, and they talked lots of sports.

The Oklahoma City Fire Department made a few changes to accommodate their guests, including making an area for their daily prayers and ensuring they wouldn’t be served pork products when meals were made at the firehouse.

Oklahoma City and Rogers shortened the fellowship participants’ shifts to 8, 10 or 12 hours at the request of Saudi Aramco, since that is a typical shift length for the company. American firefighters work in 24-48 hour shifts.

It didn’t take long to spot the differences in their shared

work, Bowen said, which included the size of fire they were accustomed to handling, service orders, physical training and the culture of the work.

“You can imagine the size of a fire at an oil refinery compared to the average fire in the city of Rogers are two totally differing things,” Bowen said. “Residential fires are a big spot where we had to help them out.”

The Rogers Department taught the Saudis about responding to smaller residential and business fires and the best technology for it, Bowen said. Working for a city department means making the most of what you have and doing it with fewer staff, whereas Saudi Aramco will purchase any amount and range of equipment.

The intense physical training common to American firefighting also was unfamiliar to Saudi Arabian firefighters, Bowen said, in part because Saudi Aramco has such a large staff and can dedicate more people to any one task.

The Rogers team puts two or three firefighters on an engine, while Saudi Aramco often has six on the engine and another six on the ladder. If they have to pull a person out of the fire scene, they don’t have to do it alone like American fighters often do.

“American firefighting is way aggressive; we’re go-getters,” Bowen said. “Here we deal with dragging someone out, and it’s done. They don’t have that frame of mind.”

American firefighters know ahead of time what their role will be and what they’re expected to do. At Saudi Aramco, fighters take orders at the scene before acting. The participants in Oklahoma City learned to operate faster over the course of their training, Hansen said.

The Oklahoma City and Rogers departments saw a difference in passion between the two groups, with Americans being more enthusiastic about the work, and hoped to extend that element to their Saudi peers. It’s different because at Saudi Aramco people apply to work for the company and don’t have the option for which department they might be placed in.

“They don’t necessarily apply to be a firefighter,” Hansen said. “We taught pride in ownership and fire service.”

“If you’re a firefighter, you’re born with the heart and the want-to,” Bowen said. “We worked on why we have that dedication and a different way of looking at what we’re doing.”

Fellowship participants saw the unfortunate side of firefighting when a structure fire in Oklahoma City was fatal. It was a first for them, Hansen said, and it exposed them to the critical stress and effect on mental health that’s common to American firefighting.

Both departments would recommend the program to other fire crews around the country.

“I think of ours as an accepting, diverse department, and this tested it,” Hansen said. “We did well but saw where we could work on and gained as much from them as they did from us.”