Damaged Donations Used At Firefighter Training Conference
Posted
Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
Non-working washers, old mattresses and broken chairs are items that cannot be sold at Our Father's House in Warsaw.
However, these items will be used to teach firefighters from all around the United States the cause of fires in homes and how to fight the fires.
The homes are in parts of Indianapolis where the area is being revitalized or are located near the Indianapolis Airport expansion.
The items will be set up to furnish two currently vacant homes in Indianapolis in April during the annual Fire Departments Instructors Conference. The homes will be used in the class to make fire scenarios realistic.
The conference is April 20-25 at the Indiana Convention Center & Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis.
Warsaw Fire Department Marshal Mike Wilson will attend the conference with WFD Chief Mike Rice and eight WFD firefighters. Wilson will serve as an instructor at the annual instructors conference, and Rice and the firefighters will attend classes.
Indiana Task Force One, Indianapolis, provided a truck, trailer and the drivers from Indianapolis to pick up the items from Our Father's House donation warehouse Friday morning.
Wilson and eight WFD firefighters Friday morning assisted with loading the truck. They were joined by seven instructors from fire departments in Indiana, Georgia, Virginia, California, New Jersey and Kentucky. Firefighters from Anderson and Avon fire departments also assisted.
Buddy Cales, lead instructor for the fire investigation hands-on training course for the Fire Departments Instructors Conference and a firefighter for the Paramus Fire Department in New Jersey, said the conference is in its 88th year. He said there are 55 students each day of the class who will perform fire scene investigations. The firefighters are taught to look for the origin of the fire.
"We furnish the homes like a regular home would be furnished and set up different types of fire scenarios for the firefighter students who are in the class to investigate," Cales said.
Items Our Father's House donated included broken snowblowers, tables and chairs, torn clothing, broken appliances and broken computers."We are taking items that are common to everyone's home so that it is realistic when we teach the investigators what to look for in instances of a fire," Wilson said. "There isn't any way possible that we could establish and outfit these homes without the help of Our Father's House."
Rice said the donated items will greatly assist training instructors and firefighters.
"The items will help replicate an actual residential fire and train the firefighters how to investigate fires," Rice said.
Our Father's House has donated unsellable items for the fire training for the past seven years.
Roz Morgan, Our Father's House founding director, said she hopes the furniture and appliances will help provide the firefighters with a teaching opportunity.
"It is amazing the education the firefighters can glean from learning to fight fires in a live situation with these materials," Morgan said.
She said the items also promote a healthy environment by not having the items wind up in in the landfill.
Jeannine Homburg is part of a group of 15-16 people called the Warehouse Warriors who come into the warehouse weekly to sort and organize items that have been donated to Our Father's House. Homburg said the group put together the items that were picked up by the firefighters.
"The items today were either broken, damaged and ordinarily would have gone to the dumpster, so this is one way they can be used for a good cause," Homburg said.
Brandon Schmitt, WFD firefighter who will attend the conference, said the items will provide valuable learning experiences for he and the other firefighters and instructors.
"It is fantastic to have these items and it will allow the scenarios we learn to be more realistic," Schmitt said.
