Over the past week, the Didsbury Fire Department had the opportunity at an interesting type of training in a different way than usual.
Raphael Buergi, a lieutenant with the fire department explained what the opportunity is all about and how it happened.
"With the ice surface no longer in place at the Didsbury Memorial Complex due to some issues, the town asked if the fire department would like to use it for training as nobody else was."
Right then they started thinking of a way to create a single-story house plan to practice some search and rescue.
"I reached out to the BGC Club Olds and Area as I know they have a haunted house with walls and everything. We picked everything up in Olds, brought it to Didsbury and within a day it was all set up."
The fire department planned to have four total sessions practicing search and rescue while they could. Buergi talked about why this is a real benefit.
"The real big benefit for the layout the way it is that it is it is reality size. So we put in an open floor plan for the kitchen and living room area with two bedrooms, a bathroom and then a master bedroom with an en suite closet. We were able to go in and run quite a few search scenarios and just go through the motions, get some good practice and get some good repetition."
He explained that usually, the fire department would use abandoned structures that would be donated for them to practice in right before they would be removed.
He also shared that their neighbours, the Carstairs Fire Department have practiced with them as well, with this training ground.
Buergi wanted to thank BGC Club Olds and Area for allowing them to use their haunted house walls as it helps them practice their skills so they are prepared for when they are needed.
"It's just great to see how it all came together in a relatively short amount of time."
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