Firefighters Honing Skills to Save Lives
By: Cassidy Hodges
Updated: June 16, 2012
"Seconds matter in our job," says Captain Mark Holaway.
"When stress reaches a certain point, their decision making decreases."
"You never know what you're going to end up facing," says Iain Davis, a volunteer firefighter in Hickory Creek.
So firefighters are keeping skills sharp with everything except flames.
"We have fake smoke, your vision obscured its dark, it's hot, it's uncomfortable," says Holaway.
Captain Mark Holaway says the course is designed to overstress a person so in an actual fire, a mistake won't happen.
"Nobody's life is at risk here if someone pulls their mask off in the middle of a fire cause they get claustrophobic, they die," says Holaway.
He says the majority of deaths in the line of duty happen because of bad decisions.
"If you train harder than you fight fire--then you're safe, you're prepared," says Holaway.
It looks easy on TV, so we thought we'd try it out.
And I went through the course without the air tank giving me quite a bit more wiggle room in those tight spaces.
"With the gear on you don't have a wide range of maneuverability to be able to look around anyway," says Davis.
Because you suit up in a moments notice, it's opportunity's like these volunteers firefighters are especially thankful for.
"Being on call, you never know what you're going to be doing when you have to respond to either a medical emergency or a fire," says Davis.
"Fighting fire is an incredibly uncomfortable physical job there's parts of it that are just grunt work," says Holaway
And the training, not something these folks do for the paycheck.
"We show up on our own time because we love our jobs, we love what we're doing," says Davis.
And all the extra time is devoted to keep people in Northwest Arkansas safe.
"When stress reaches a certain point, their decision making decreases."
"You never know what you're going to end up facing," says Iain Davis, a volunteer firefighter in Hickory Creek.
So firefighters are keeping skills sharp with everything except flames.
"We have fake smoke, your vision obscured its dark, it's hot, it's uncomfortable," says Holaway.
Captain Mark Holaway says the course is designed to overstress a person so in an actual fire, a mistake won't happen.
"Nobody's life is at risk here if someone pulls their mask off in the middle of a fire cause they get claustrophobic, they die," says Holaway.
He says the majority of deaths in the line of duty happen because of bad decisions.
"If you train harder than you fight fire--then you're safe, you're prepared," says Holaway.
It looks easy on TV, so we thought we'd try it out.
And I went through the course without the air tank giving me quite a bit more wiggle room in those tight spaces.
"With the gear on you don't have a wide range of maneuverability to be able to look around anyway," says Davis.
Because you suit up in a moments notice, it's opportunity's like these volunteers firefighters are especially thankful for.
"Being on call, you never know what you're going to be doing when you have to respond to either a medical emergency or a fire," says Davis.
"Fighting fire is an incredibly uncomfortable physical job there's parts of it that are just grunt work," says Holaway
And the training, not something these folks do for the paycheck.
"We show up on our own time because we love our jobs, we love what we're doing," says Davis.
And all the extra time is devoted to keep people in Northwest Arkansas safe.
