The Communique

Issue date: 9/29/05 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Cameron Williams Firefighters respond to a car accident as part of a training exercise at Kirkwood.

Firefighters flooded the Kirkwood main campus on Sept. 24 and 25 for the 19th annual Central Iowa Training Association (CITA) Kirkwood Fire School.

About 125 fire science instructors were present to keep firefighters up-to-date and well-trained in the increasingly technologically advanced field. Vendors in attendance provided immediate convenience services to the participants, while salesmen promoted everything from vehicles to protective gear.

One of the new procedures registrants became familiar with was the extraction of passengers from cars equipped with air bags as the safety devices. Those vehicles require more training to work around in the event of an extraction.

"It's basically to help keep firefighters up to date with new and improved ways of firefighting," said Program Manager Kimberly Fensterman. "For example, there's also a class that focuses on meth lab awareness."

Fensterman said forces throughout the Midwest must address the illegal labs and need to be well-attuned to how to handle the situation.
Emergency medical responders also had an opportunity to be updated in the latest public safety procedures. Fifty-five classes were offered throughout the weekend.

The event was large enough to warrant the closings of all of the parking lots in the Auto Collision Center, Community Training and Response Center, Johnson Hall and Washington Hall. The program utilized many of Kirkwood's facilities located on the eastern portion of campus.

Kirkwood is certainly no stranger to the CITA event and its demands.

"The first time we did it [the fire school], there were only 70 registrants," said Fensterman. The highest number of registrants participating was 977 in 1997.

Over 800 people registered for the firefighter training exercises this year.

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