The Alaska Fire Conference is currently being held in Kenai and has assembled over 200 firefighters from across the state for unique training opportunities.
During the Helicopter Egress training, crew members were strapped into the helicopter simulator, lowered into, and flipped upside down in the Kenai Central High School pool. From there the crews are to unstrap, eject the mods’ windows and swim to the surface.
Marnie Olcott helps run the Modular Egress Training System and said it is the only training module not belonging to the military on the West Coast.
Olcott: “One of the main benefits of having this type of training down in Kenai is that it is industry driven and it is required by many of our major producers for both our employees and our contractors and so being able to offer our training down here in Kenai brings a huge amount of revenue into our area.”
We also spoke with trainee Johnson Dourtay who had just participated in the training.
Dourtay: “I wasn’t very confident that I could fulfill this task because I had never been in this type of situation so actually going through this process gave me more confidence to succeed in case we do crash, it’s a great training experience.”
The Fire Conference will continue through the week, ending with the Cameron Carter memorial run on Saturday, September 27, followed by a Firefighter Skills Competition.
Below watch KSRM’s own unique footage of the training;
[ot-video type=”youtube” url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwyQwoXGDbw”]