Hundreds of Sask. volunteer firefighters attend training in Pilot Butte

It’s a full three days of learning for hundreds of volunteer firefighters this weekend.

The Saskatchewan Volunteer Firefighters Association is hosting one of its fire schools in Pilot Butte.

This training weekend will have around 300 firefighters taking courses. The courses range from firefighter basics to search and rescue and vehicle firefighting.

Louis Cherpin, the president of the Saskatchewan Volunteer Firefighter Association, said firefighters across the province will attend this training weekend.

“(This is to) just bring them in for some specialized training, some specific training that they may not necessarily get back at their home departments,” he said.

This weekend, firefighters will start with the theory and then move to the practical.

Cherpin said they may cut cars apart for vehicle extraction, cut buses apart, or do pump operations.

“Saskatchewan volunteer firefighters really get to put their skills to the test from what they’ve learned on the theory part,” he said.

According to Cherpin, this school is hosted twice a year.

He said while it had to stall out because of COVID, it returned last year.

“Firefighters are always excited to come to these events for the visiting of the firefighters they see a couple of times a year or just the hands-on training of whatever course they signed up for,” Cherpin said.

He called this training beneficial because a lot of fire departments in rural Saskatchewan can’t host courses like what is being held this weekend.

“They don’t have the budget or the expertise or the training to be able to do this, so the firefighters that take these courses come to these courses and take it home with them and they teach their firefighters,” Cherpin said.

He said everyone benefits from these courses.

“You’re making a safer firefighter, a safer community, and a safer Saskatchewan with it,” Cherpin said.