Fire school focuses on structure fires, farming incidents | News

CAPE GIRARDEAU COUNTY, MO (KFVS)- This weekend, the 35th Cape Girardeau County Regional Fire School focused on fighting structure fires and performing farming incident rescue.

For the fire fighting portion, crews were trained for fires in different types of layouts of buildings.

And, for the farming extraction portion, the firefighters focused on rescues in farming equipment, such as grain bins, augers and overturned tractors.

According to Alvin Frank, Jr., President of Cape Girardeau County Fire Fighters Association and Delta Fire Chief, fires of all kinds in houses are very common this time of year, and this training goes a long way in keeping fire fighters at the top of their game.

"It's continuing education of training
of equipment and just different techniques," said Frank. "Things work
different now than 10 years ago. New equipment, new tools to use-it's just
different techniques."

In all, 44 participants from 15 departments attended the school.

Also, with the weather turning cold, officials are warning about the dangers of personal space heaters.

"Electric heaters, weak extension cords,
things next to them are combustible, they get hot and ignite," said Frank.
"Check your smoke alarms. If you've got gas in your house, your CO
detectors, make sure your batteries are good in them. Just mainly make sure
your flue's are in good shape."

Firefighters learned some ways to prevent the heaters from causing a devastating fire.

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