Statesboro Fire Department receives rare opportunity to train at Georgia Southern’s University Villas before demolition
This summer, Georgia Southern provided the Statesboro Fire Department (SFD) with a rare opportunity to complete a three-week training program at the University Villas on the Statesboro Campus before its demolition.
“Having a facility like University Villas to train in is an invaluable tool, especially for our younger and newer members who lack experience in mitigating incidents in multi-story buildings,” said SFD Capt. Chris Moore.
Chris Colson, Georgia Southern’s director of fire and life safety, believes that by providing this unique access to a multi-story, multi-unit complex for fire and life safety training will not only benefit the community at large but also the University.
“This unique training provided a chance for the SFD to become familiar with on-campus structures through simulated emergency scenarios,” said Colson. “College housing floor plans differ from those of a typical house or apartment. At the University Villas complex, there is access to a third floor via a narrow spiral staircase. This program gave firefighters experience in accessing these difficult spaces.”
Through this program, firefighters were able to practice essential skills such as search and rescue, forcible entry and roof ventilation under time restraints. While a fire was not set during the training, the use of smoke machines provided an opportunity to experience low-visibility scenarios and life-sized mannequins were used to make their training as realistic as possible.
“This training allowed us to accomplish two things,” said SFD Lt. Vincent Moore. “Our more experienced firefighters gained a refresher on certain skills that we don't usually have the opportunity to practice on actual structures. Our newer firefighters were able to experience the difference between how training works on a prop versus how these skills actually work when put to use on real-world structures.”
“The training was excellent,” Capt. Moore said. “We hope to have further opportunities to train in conjunction with Georgia Southern in the future.”