Nearly 100 firefighters and other emergency responders were at the Fire Training Center today to participate in four different classes to help them be better prepared for accident and fire responses.
Gary Hearn, regional emergency manager for Amtrak (bottom photo), taught a class on train passenger emergency response procedures.
There was advanced instruction for emergency medical technicians taking place in another classroom.
In still another classroom, the first day of two days of training sponsored by Tompkins Insurance on emergency vehicle operations.
And out in the back of the training center, the Firefighter II class spent eight hours learning about and practicing accident victim extrication.
"There can be severe damage, so they need to learn as many tricks as possible to get these folks out as quickly as possible," said Jim Bouton, deputy emergency coordinator.
The training center is often a busy place, Bouton said, but today was a little extra busy.
"Quite often the building is full but we’re out here on a back road and nobody sees us," Bouton said. "Sometimes, though we have a tremendous number of programs going on. Today we just happened to have every single classroom and training area filled."
