Kachina Village Fire Training Exercise

Fire crews spraying the training house with a high pressure stream of water. (Chad Black/ APSN.us)

Kachina Village (NAZ Today)- On November 21, 2009 the Highlands Fire District hosted a multi-agency, live fire training exercise. A number of agencies from around Northern Arizona took part in this training exercise including: Flagstaff Fire Department, Summitt Fire District, Pinewood Fire Distric, Coconino County Sheriff’s Department, and Guardian Medical Transport.

The exercise used a house in Kachina Village that was acquired by the Coconino County Parks and Recreation Department as part of the Pumphouse Greenway enhancement project and funded by the Coconino Parks and Open Space Program.

Highlands Fire District, working with Coconino County obtained the opportunity to utilize the newly acquired structure for a variety of different fire training exercises. Highlands Fire District Chief Jim Pond said, “We intend to use this unique opportunity for valuable, realistic training for our Fire District as well as for the surrounding agencies. Highlands Fire District has been conducting non-fire trainings inside the structure, such as search and rescue, fire attack and suppression, horizontal ventilation and firefighter rescue drills for approximately 3 months.”

Chief Pond further stated, “While these trainings are invaluable, the prospect of live-fire training is a tremendous opportunity that we don’t want to pass up. During live-fire training, crews can practice with real-time communications, operations and tactical decisions that cannot be duplicated any other way. All of this valuable training will mean that we can provide a higher degree of service to our community.”

This training opportunity was also made possible through the efforts of the Coconino County Parks and Recreation Department, District 3 Supervisor Matt Ryan, Fire Chief Jim Pond, Deputy Chief Mike Bradley, and Battalion Chief Dirch Foreman.