Training Major Part Of Tennessee Firefighters Conference In Cookeville

Training on arson and motor vehicle fires, two of the focuses during the 90th Annual Tennessee Firefighters Association Conference held this week in Cookeville.

Firefighters from across the state gather for training and networking purposes. The Upper Cumberland Fire Chiefs Association sponsored the event. Baxter Fire Chief Matthew White said the training classes are an essential part of the conference.

“The Upper Cumberland Fire Chiefs Association wanted to have those classes to be able to get these firefighters in the area these trainings,” White said. “Some departments may not the resources for it some may have, but any extra training we can provide benefits us as a community.”

White said the conference provided firefighters unique training scenarios they may not get to train for otherwise. White said the conference allows chiefs and firefighters from across the state to network and get to know each other. He said they exchange techniques they’ve learned, and discuss best equipment.

“We spent two days in the junk yard,” White said. “One day we had a bus we were able to take and manipulate. Do training on a bus, an actual schools bus, to be able to extricate out of, learn new ways and techniques to cut into, tunnel into, be able to take and remove patients or injured people out of it quickly.”

White said the training was not the only important part of the conference.

“Now a days, with volunteer, people have to work,” White said. “They have lives. So sometimes you may not have as many volunteers as you might like show up. So sometimes you need to rely on another department to help out.”

White said there was also a fire chief class available to everyone.

“It’s about how to be a fire chief and it’s a big realm of things from the administrative side to the budgeting side to operational to personal,” White said. “It lets a lot of these people understand how being a fire chief is not just showing up sometimes on the scene of a fire.”