FORT RILEY, Kan. - More than 70 members of Army Reserve fire departments from various units throughout the United States finished two weeks of training June 18.
The training was conducted by the Kansas Fire and Rescue Training Institute - part of the University of Kansas continuing education - for Army firefighters to acquire their firefighter certification.
Classes offered were airport firefighter, pumper driver operator, aircraft rescue firefighting, driver operator, fire instructor 1 and fire officer 1.
Instructors are from all around the state and include instructors from the Fort Riley Fire Department such as Ivan May, fire inspector, and Mike Cook, former fire department chief.
"The Fort Riley Fire Department is also supplying support to the class by providing the training grounds, equipment and personnel to assist in the class," May said.
Each class consisted of classroom training followed by hands-on training for the topic being trained on.
About 40 reservists took part in the airport/driver operator class and about 30 in the instructor/fire officer class.
This training is important so the Army Reserves have properly trained firefighters, May said. It also will assist them for when units deploy and in future training with the Army Reserve, to include the unit located at Fort Riley.
Conducting the training at Fort Riley also will build the relationships between the fire department and the Reserves.
"It will also help bond the assistance that the Kansas Fire and Rescue Training Institute can provide for the Fort Riley Fire Department, what the Fort Riley Fire Department can offer the KFRTI and develop better relations with the Army Reserve fire fighters," May said.
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