GREAT FALLS — Great Falls Fire Rescue is preparing to host another hands-on, interactive Citizens Academy. The eight-week program will cover a variety of topics, including auto extrication, technical rope rescue, hazardous materials mitigation, Advanced Life Support skills and EMS, search and rescue, and live-fire evolutions.
GFFR say they've learned a lot themselves by conducting these citizen academies, and want to continue conversations and interaction by showing people what it is firefighters do every day.
"It kind of spreads awareness on what the fire department does,” said Nolan Eggen, Deputy Chief of Training. “Most the people in this town rarely, if ever, have to call 911, so they don’t have much interaction with us and what we do. And I think what we have now is a really good foundation to sort of cover everything that we do and teach people."
Not only do participants learn, but firefighters also learn too, getting involved weekly with different trainings and situations, helping them prepare for a real call.
"I've helped out with some of the portions of the Citizen's Academy the last couple of times I did a technical rescue portion,” engineer Steven Luwe said.
“I helped with some of their live, live burns. It allows us to show the public and the citizens of Great Falls of what we do and to get them some hands-on experience, so they have a good idea of what we go through. It’s a learning experience for everyone and it’s pretty fun."
The next academy is scheduled to run from September 8th to October 27th. Classes take place on eight consecutive Thursday evenings from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m.
The application deadline is August 25th. You can email gffr.office@greatfallsmt.net for an application or to get more information.
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