LIVE FIRE AND SMOKE TRAINING

A MOBIL TRAINING UNIT FROM WISCONSIN INDIAN HEAD COMMUNITY COLLEGE..

GIVES LOCAL VOLUNTEER FIREMEN...

...THE OPPORTUNITY...

...TO DON SPECIAL EQUIPMENT...

AND PRACTICE UNDER REAL-LIFE FIRE AND SMOKE CONDITIONS

LIGHTING THE EASTER FLAME

Sunday, 9:45 AM.  Happy Easter! 36 degrees F on at the ferry dock and on the back porch.  Wind variable, with very light gusts.  The sky is overcast and foggy, the humidity 95%.  The barometer is rising, now at 36.66".  Today and Monday will be partly cloudy and cool, warming with significant rain on Tuesday, then cooler again with mixed skies and weather the balance of the week.  We attended Easter Vigil yesterday evening at Christ Church Episcipal, followed by a seder meal, all in all a wonderful service and gathering.
   As we returned yesterday from the recycle center outside Red Cliff we drove through heavy smoke, and glancing about saw that it was fire and rescue training, provided on-site by the Wisconsin Indian Head Technical College.
   A large number of voluteer firemen were dressed in their fire and smoke gear, with protective clothing and oxygen tanks, waiting their turn to enter the smoke filled trailer provided by the school.  This was  evidently a pretty sophisticated simulation, and the training serious business.
   We have lived in communities with volunteer emergency services and those with paid professionals, and have always felt the two to be functionally pretty similar, but rural volunteers are becoming a scarce commodity, as young people seek work elsewhere, and older volunteers become fewer and fewer, and the community tax base struggles to provide support for either volunteers or paid professionals.