Making Sure Firefighters Get Home Safe

Nineteen fire departments from across Dodge and Fond du Lac Counties are involved in a program making sure their firefighters get home safely from structure fires. All seventeen departments in Fond du Lac County and Brownsville and Lomira Fire Departments from Dodge County are participating in the Rapid Intervention Team training. Fond du Lac Assistant Fire Chief Steve Beer says the teams will be divided up into five geographic regions and a team will be dispatched each time there’s a fire involving a building. That team’s responsibility is to make sure firefighters are safe while fighting the blaze. He says 6 to 10 members from each department and officers will get the training and will become the best of the best. He says for now the training is in a classroom, but when the weather gets better training will be done at a donated home in Oakfield. The home will have 8 different skills stations training for scenarios like what to do when a firefighter falls through a floor. Beer says ultimately the goal is to get firefighters back home safely from the job. Fond du Lac Fire Department photo of training house in Oakfield.