CFA training heats up

“We’ve been developing incident management skills, pump operation, boosting, breathing apparatus and rescue,” Echuca CFA member Mark Hooper said.

The two units are part of the Deakin group of fire brigades, which includes Echuca Village, Tongala, Wyuna and other, smaller units.

Combining for drills prepares them for events that they are likely to support each other at in future.

“It allows us to practise our skills together,” Mr Hooper said.

“We back each other up at structure fires, so it just allows us to make sure that our interoperability systems work well and has the common set of operating principles that we follow.

Through the pods, some of the attendees were able to gain valuable — and often rare — practice before their upcoming assessments.

“This is a really great opportunity for them to practise their skills at a training environment before getting assessed to be able to use them in a real fire,” Mr Hooper said.

“A lot of people don’t get the opportunity to actually practice in this sort of environment prior to getting assessed.”

The Deakin group often combines for training, and since the pods have been introduced, more than 60 CFA local members have trained with them.

“The brigades now train regularly and respond regularly,” Mr Hooper said.

“This is more just the opportunity to get people together and put a couple of vehicles together in a training environment with this gear.”