Local firefighters return from Indianapolis

Shannon LeClair – Times Reporter

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Strathmore firefighters spent a week at the Indianapolis Convention Centre for the Fire Department Instructors Conference, FDIC.

For 80 years, FDIC has had one mission: to train the fire service. This year 30,000 firefighters attended the conference, and over 70 per cent of them are volunteers.

This was the third year the Strathmore Fire Department sent people down to attend. It was Terry Desserre’s third year, Jeff Karkut’s second and Doug Reid’s first year. 

One trip was paid through Fire Within. The training division with the fire department sent the other two firefighters.

“It was outstanding, there were two days of H.O.T training, which is hands-on training, and the rest of the days were three days of conferences,” said Desserre.

“We got a lot of experience and insight,” said Karkut.

The conference trains the firefighters in all new basic tactics which are coming up all over North America.

Firefighters from South America and Europe also attended the event this year.  Desserre doubts there were even 1,000 people in attendance from Canada.

“It’s all being taught by departments like New York, Chicago, Boston, that’s where all the instructors come out of.”

A lot of the new protocols and equipment the fire department uses are based on knowledge gathered from attending the FDIC, which they implemented here.

“Everything from little hand tools to trucks were there,” said Karkut.

“It’s an outstanding training conference for the guys here, to bring that stuff back and then implement it here is great,” said Desserres.

There are 32 firefighters in Strathmore. All of them are volunteers except for Muir Furzer, the fire chief, who is full-time.