FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- The 92nd Civil Engineer Squadron Fire Department hosted West Plains Recruit Academy for a fire training exercise here, June 12, 2021.
“The purpose of the training is to increase our community partnership,” said Tech Sgt. Alexander Spears, 92nd CES firefighter. “We showed them around base, walked them around our KC-135 Stratotankers, shared our mission set, and put them through training with our firefighters.”
The recruits got a KC-135 familiarization, trained on ladder bail-outs for deteriorating structures, and went through the confined space trainer to practice hauling someone through a small space and out of harm’s way.
“The recruits from the academy are all volunteers from the surrounding area,” said Bronson Baker, 92nd CES firefighter. “They got some familiarity with our aircraft, some more fire survival skills and, on top of that, they got some face time with our firefighters who they could work with in the future.”
For fire services, it is extremely important to have mutual aid agreements with outside agencies so they can provide a better overall service experience.
“[Local departments] will come help us on base if we have an in-flight emergency or anything that’s going to limit our personnel on base, and we respond out if they need our resources for any call they might have,” Spears said. “Basically it’s just increasing the services that the fire department can provide to their jurisdiction.”
Fairchild values the partnerships with the Spokane community to keep the mission going day in and day out enabling emergency services to continue to saving lives.