BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (WMBD) — Bloomington Fire Department held its cone course training this week, designed to ensure firefighters are confident in their engine driving abilities.
This year, the annual training took place in the parking lot of Eastland Mall, where a course was set up for firefighters to complete without knocking over more than two cones.
“It is a good refresher for all of our personnel to go through all of our different types of apparatus that we have in order for them to maintain some consistency and remember how each of the individual pieces of apparatus operate going backwards and forwards and through different obstacles,” said Frank Friend, public information officer for BFD.
Firefighters were given different tasks such as parallel parking, weaving forward and backward and three-point turns. Each obstacle was designed to simulate real-life situations firefighters may encounter when responding to a call.
“Each one of these obstacles on the course mimics something that they’re going to actually see in the real world,” said Friend. “That’s kind of what we’re trying to mimic: those real-world situations that our driver-engineers are going to be put in.”
The department hopes the training will give the firefighters a refreshed sense of confidence when driving the engines.
“A renewed sense of confidence that they can operate that apparatus confidently, safely through whatever the city throws at us. That’s what we do,” he said.
WMBD TV first reported this story. You can read the original story online at CIProud.com.
