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Fire departments train for large-scale fire events
Published
Socorro and Midway fire departments joined forces on Saturday for a training on moving large amounts of water in the event of a large fire.
“When we have a large-scale incident, whether it be a building like the size of Raks or Walmart, we need a lot of water for that. And the hydrant systems, the way they’re built, they’re not going to support it,” Midway Fire Chief Marc Wheeler said. “We wanted to train on how we can utilize the water tenders from the county to support a large-scale fire operation in the city.”
According to Socorro Fire Chief Lawrence Baca, water tenders can deliver the necessary water directly to the scene, eliminating the need for fire trucks to disconnect and drive to a hydrant to refill.
“Look at all this equipment and all the resources they have to help us,” Baca said of the Midway Department. “They come in, and they know our equipment, we know their equipment, we know all the personnel and all that stuff. It just makes it a lot better.”
Wheeler, who organized the training, said for a county fire department the water tenders are essential when responding to rural fire emergencies where they may not have access to hydrants. He felt it was important to train on it with the city crew so it could also be utilized in large-scale events.
Baca and Wheeler said they rotate hosting trainings and make an effort to train together once every other month. When each department does its own mandatory monthly training, they also invite each other. Both chiefs believe the collaboration significantly enhances their ability to respond to emergencies.
“Since we have an automatic aid agreement, they come out to help us. We come to town to help them,” Wheeler said. “Our cooperation has increased because we train together now. So when we get on a fire scene, everybody knows each other’s capabilities.”
With their consistently high volume of calls and back-end office work required to meet state requirements, they are committed to supporting each other, said the fire chiefs.
“We’ve got to work together. And we couldn’t do it without them. They couldn’t do it without us. And the amount of calls that we’re having, the amount of people we have, it’s just good to have people,” Baca said.
