Page 10 - Ft. Huachuca Scout 7-17-15

10A The Scout
Firefighters share
Story and photos by Natalie Lakosil
Staff Writer
Fort Huachuca is supported by three
firehouses and more than 45 fire person-
nel to help keep the installation safe.
“Our firefighters are tasked with a
multitude of missions—tech rescue mis-
sion, [hazardous materials], wild land,
[emergency medicine], aircraft, struc-
tural,” said Reco Houston, assistant chief
of training. “The Army regulation man-
dates that these [firefighters] get at least aid partners such as the F
120 hours of training each year and if
you count everything [they do], they’re
going to exceed that easily.”
Since wild land fires pose the most
danger to the installation, all three sta-
tions share fighting wild land fire as a
common mission. Each station also has
a separate mission.
The primary mission of Fire Station
One, located on Smith Avenue, is struc-
tural firefighting and hazardous materi-
als.
Structural firefighting includes all of
the facilities on post and “urban inter-
face,” or the land located next to the fa-
cilities. Firefighters respond with crews,
deploy hoses, enter the structure and ex-
tinguish the fires.
When dealing with hazardous materi-
als, the primary mission is everything up
to the point of cleanup. Firefighters iso-
late the material and deny entry depend-
ing on the level of contamination.
“We can go anywhere from a simple
containment to a technical HAZMAT
technician level, where we put on pro-
tective suits and breathing apparatuses,”
said Fort Huachuca Fire Chief Bradley
Nicholson. “They go in, identify the sub-
stance and put it in containers and get it
Firefighters with the Fort Huachuca Fire Department conduct a structure fire training exercise here. (left to right) Stephen Krause, firefighter, and Todd Erslev, firefighter, extinguish
flames with a hose inside a mock structural fire during a monthly training
exercise. The smoke to create a life like training environment is made from
Propylene Glycol.
FRIDAY, JULY 17, 2015
ready for shipment. All of o
al firefighters are technicia
dispatch.”
Fire Station Two, which
addition to the firehouses,
Squire Avenue. Its prima
structural and wild land fire
In the event of smoke
range, they are the initial
fighters at this station will
try to contain it; they also
and other county resources
“Small grass fires we ca
the higher elevations or du
mer, we don’t have the c
resources to deal with tha
Service handles the prescri
wildfires, and we assist,” sa
The Fort Huachuca Fir
also partners with surround
cies for various training.
“This is a wild land stati
Jimenez, assistant chief of
Fire Station Two. “We also
for mutual aid assignment
call; whoever needs it we h
“Wild land fire is the big
the post because the behavi
and you don’t know where
happen and so the post do
of trying to mitigate those
ards by trimming back br
like that around facilities,”
The average day for fi
Fort Huachuca consists o
briefing, truck checks, co
training or department trai
break, more training, phy
for an hour and then they j
to respond for emergencie
gency develops, they leave
resume once the situation is