Volunteer recruits from the Hoodland Fire District (HFD) participated in a live
fire training event hosted by Estacada Fire District on Feb. 27 at the Estacada
Fire training grounds, 261 SE Jeremy Loveless Ave. in Estacada. The exercise
was an opportunity to provide training for the firefighters under realistic
conditions and to assure the firefighters are trained to perform at their best
when a real emergency occurs in the community.

“The trainees get to experience the heat and smoke of a fire in a controlled
environment,” HFD’s Lieutenant Andrew Figini said. “It’s a safety thing. You
don’t want to do anything for the first time in an uncontrolled environment.”
Recruits from HFD were joined by recruits from Colton Rural Fire Protection
District for the training exercises, utilizing Estacada Fire’s new mobile training
facility.

The training was also an opportunity to assist Estacada Fire District’s interim
chief Steve Abel with running training exercises using the new mobile training
prop, while also offering a pool of instructors needed to train an upcoming
class of recruits for Estacada Fire. The recruits who participated also fulfilled
requirements for Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards & Training
certification.

“It was a train the trainer event,” Figini said. “We assisted in learning how to
run the prop and then train the students.

“It was an opportunity for good interdepartmental cooperation between our
department and theirs,” Figini added.

Eight recruits from Hoodland Fire and four recruits from Colton Fire
participated.

The new mobile prop is a shipping container with a set built inside it out of
wooden pallets and plywood. A fire is then set to simulate an actual structure
fire.

“It’s as close to being in a house on fire without having a building to burn,”
Figini said.

Figini explained that since the exercise is held in a metal shipping container
the fire is hotter than one experienced during a house fire.

“We built up the fire slowly throughout the day and eased (the trainees) into
the deep end easy,” Figini said. “They’d go in and get a good hit, get a good
knockdown and then we’d reset. If you go through the prop you can pretty
much handle anything.”

Estacada Fire held their first week of volunteer academy starting on March 3.
The district will train 24 recruits utilizing the mobile training prop through
June.

More information about the Hoodland Fire District is available online at
https://www.hoodlandfire.us.