BIG SKY — Firefighters from all around are crawling through tunnels, scaling ladders and maneuvering tight spaces this week as part of a 40-hour confined space rescue training.
The course is offered nationwide, but Ahmad, a firefighter from San Francisco, said Big Sky offers something unique. “It’s nice to be learning from a different fire department outside of my agency,” Ahmad said.
“The training is pretty standardized,” Ahmad said. “What’s unique is that you get different instructors that come here. So we have instructors from Nashville Fire, Chicago Fire, Phoenix Fire Department, so they all have something that they bring to the table.”
Training Captain Dave Parker showed MTN the human sized tunnel structure where crews suit up before hauling “Randy” the mannequin through narrow passages.
“So, [it’s] adorned with the Martel logo and the Big Sky Fire logo?” Parker said while showing the maze.
The training site is not inside a firehouse,it is on the construction site of the future 28,000-square-foot Big Sky Aspire Gym and Recreation Center.
“At Martel we always have a community initiative every year that we want to be involved in,” said Shawn Carroll site superintendent.
This year, that meant building and hosting the training at the $50 million project site.
“They sent them to me and I said, ‘Hey! If you can build a confined space prop, kind of like a human hamster maze, so we can get those horizontal entrances in there,’” Training captain Dave Parker said.
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Shawn Carroll said the collaboration was an easy decision. “It’s a no-brainer,” Carroll said. “These guys really risk their lives every day, and if we are a part of something that helps them save a life, that’s something we want to do.”
With just two days until accreditation, Parker said the training’s impact goes beyond Big Sky.
“The most important part I would say is getting firefighters knowledge in specialized disciplines like confined space just in case we have something, and not just Big Sky firefighters but firefighters throughout the county,” Parker said.
