COMMERCIAL POINT, Ohio — Two Scioto Township firefighters spent three days training at a Tennessee fire academy last week, and the department came home with a donated thermal imaging camera worth nearly $5,000, courtesy of the Gary Sinise Foundation.
Firefighters Gideon Dixon and Jeremiah Fabbro attended the training free of charge, with lodging, breakfast and lunch covered, the Scioto Township Fire Department said in a Facebook post. The department thanked the Gary Sinise Foundation, the training organization Performance Under Pressure and the Murfreesboro Fire Department in Tennessee for hosting the session.
The training was held through the Gary Sinise Foundation’s First Responder Outreach program, which provides funding, equipment and training to police, fire and EMS agencies nationwide, with a focus on volunteer and underfunded departments, according to the foundation. The Tennessee-based organization Performance Under Pressure, which led the instruction, teaches firefighters using a three-phase “crawl, walk, run” method that moves from basic skill repetition to high-stress scenario training, according to the organization’s website.
Murfreesboro’s Doug Young Public Safety Training Facility, where the foundation has previously hosted multi-day firefighter training conferences drawing departments from across the country, includes a burn building and other structures used for live-fire and rescue drills.
Along with the hands-on instruction, the Gary Sinise Foundation donated a Bullard thermal imaging camera to the department, a device firefighters use to see through smoke and locate hot spots or trapped occupants. The department said the donation saved it close to $5,000.
Scioto Township Fire Department provides fire, rescue and advanced life support EMS coverage to roughly 11,000 residents in Scioto Township and the villages of Commercial Point and Orient in Pickaway County.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Scioto Township Fire Department.
