Wea VFD develops emergency skills

TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) - A Tippecanoe County volunteer fire department got some hands-on safety and survival training Monday evening.

Firefighters with the Wea Township department practiced two different scenarios, including finding an injured firefighter who was trapped inside a structure.
    
Assistant Chief Patrick Harper said these types of practice situations help firefighters develop motor and muscle skills they will turn to in a real emergency. Also fresh in their minds is Steve Smith, a Wea volunteer who was killed in June 2006 when a floor collapsed during a fire.    

"Steve is always in our minds and whatever we can do to train our firefighters to have the skills that if they find themselves on a collapsed floor, lost somewhere, or in some kind of trapped situation that they can go back to the training they received tonight," Harper said.

Harper said 83 firefighters died in the line of duty last year in the United States, including five people who died from being trapped in a structure fire.