Fresno County firefighters sharpening skills with training sessions in Fowler

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- It was training day for fire crews in Fresno County on Sunday.

From billowing smoke to chainsaws, firefighters from CAL FIRE Fresno, Fresno County Fire, and the City of Selma gathered in Fowler to go over different emergency drills.

"We're focusing on first instructional firefighting skills and scenarios command control, which means a radio etiquette the way that we set up our incidents and the way that we run our incidents," said Fresno County Fire Battalion Chief Juan Navarro.

The City of Fowler granted firefighters access to an old structure before it's torn down and replaced with a new police department and senior center.

"It's not very often that we get an opportunity like this to come and train at a standing structure facility most of the time we're at our training facility where it's very common for our guys to go in once a month, so they know the building this on the other hand is something new," said Navarro.

Navarro said the drills conducted over the course of several days are helpful to firefighters working alongside other crews from other stations within the county.

"It's very important for us to train together to ensure we have the same like strategies and tactics, and that we know what we're coming into when we go into other people's jurisdictions," said Navarro.

Navarro says even though there is no actual firefighting happening during these drills, the practice is helpful in sharpening firefighters' skills.

"We have smoke machines, we have dummies that we play in scenarios to get our firefighters to think along the lines of what true emergencies are gonna be really starting to sharpen their skills and give them a newfound viewpoint on what emergencies gonna be in real life scenario," said Navarro.

The training at the old senior center is expected to last until January 10th.

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