Firefighters train in specialized safety techniques
HARDIN COUNTY, Tenn. — Every hero needs a little extra training to save lives, and that’s what hundreds did this weekend in Hardin County for the annual Tennessee River Firefighter Training Weekend. “In the United states on average we lose about 100 firefighters a year,” Instructor Terry Smith said. These dedicated heroes are doing everything they can to prevent any more lives lost. “The big thing we want to stress, and the main thing we hope they do is learn to be safer where they can help their communities and be safe doing it,” Hardin County Fire Chief Melvin Martin said. Beginner firefighters all the way to officers and chiefs attended the 16-hour training weekend. “When you come from a small department, you don’t see a lot of these things and it changes your perspective on how your training is in your own community, and how you can make the better of it,” Lauderdale Firefighter Tanner Jenkins said. These firefighters took classes all weekend to take the skills they learn here back to their counties to teach their fellow firefighters. “Most of the firefighters in this area I know are volunteers and it means a lot because they are doing this on their own time. Nobody is paying them to do it,” Smith said. Chief Martin said 70%-75% of the fire departments in Tennessee are volunteer. “The volunteers take a weekend off work, spend the weekend here, 16 hours of training and a lot of them pay their own way. So they are all very dedicated volunteers,” he said. “There’s nights when they go into work and they have been up all night long and they made absolutely nothing, and they did that because they want to help someone else,” Smith said. Around 300 firefighters and instructors from all across the state participated in the training weekend. More than 50 fire departments were represented.
