Milan Fire Department gets new training for hazardous situations

MILAN, Tenn. — It looks like a construction site, and it even sounds like one, but it’s actually the staging ground for potentially life saving tactics in the event of a structural collapse.

“If somebody is trapped underneath something like that, we now have the tools and the knowledge to be able to do that safely,” said Milan Fire Department Chief Steve Dillard.

The Milan Fire Department has been training all week for this field test. They had to quickly build support walls, in the event of an unstable building.

“This’ll be real world, real speed, we’ve been training on specific maneuvers to shore up ceilings and walls and floors. All those type things,” Chief Dillard said.

The scenario is complete with an instructor, playing a person trapped inside and needing rescue.

This is all thanks to a grant, which Chief Dillard says helped bring this exciting new training.

“This is our whole department being trained in this, so this is going to be a big step forward for us in technical rescue,” Chief Dillard said.

The fire department says more than 20 firefighters received the training.