The Estevan Fire and Rescue Department will continue their training tonight on the 1300 block of 8th Street from 7-9 pm. The previous night they had also conducted training with smoke bombs, smoke machine and other equipment to replicate real-world conditions. 

The EFRS conducted training last night.

"Training went very, very well," shared Fire Chief, Dale Feser. "We were practising some basic skill sets. The aspects of ventilation, forcible entry, we did search and rescue drills inside the home using smoke bombs so there was a completely smoke out environment for the firefighters to enter in."

"Tonight we're going to continue on there. We're going to go around the 7:00 mark and then probably go on until 9:00 pm and try to wrap things up because of course, we want to be sensitive to the residents in the area. A lot of people go to bed early or have children that are going to be going to bed so we don't want to make an additional noise if we don't have to."

Feser adds that they often conduct similar training events in-house or out of town.

"Obviously we want to capitalize any time we have the opportunity to train in an acquired structure so we can provide the most realistic training environment for our firefighters. We want to make sure everyone is bringing their A game to any type of emergency so we continually train to ensure our skills stay honed."

Tonight's focus will be on what happens when a firefighter needs to quickly exit a dangerous environment.

"We're going to do some disorientation drills, we're going to have some bailout drills. We're going to have some below grade rescue drills where there are firefighters in the basement and they're regular means of egress has been cut off. They're going to have to try and find themselves a window to try and egress through."

"Now, that sounds like it's fairly easy, however, you have to understand that firefighters are wearing all the additional protective equipment such as turnout gear, helmet, forcible entry tool and they're dragging a hose. their bodies are quite a bit larger than what a normal person would be."

"It's all about firefighter survival and safety tonight."

EFRS requests that the public respect any roadblocks that are set up to ensure safety.