Fire Department seeking supplies for training exercise

By Bryan Shettig in The New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung
The former Advanced Auto Parts on Walnut Avenue is now mostly vacant, except for a few workers from the New Braunfels Fire Department working to get ready for a series of training exercises. Battlion Chief Stacie Zercher has been working for several days, sweeping, collecting large cardboard boxes and literally dumpster diving for supplies. City Councilor Steven Digges, a department secretary and she have been working on their own time while firefighters run training exercises in preparation for a two-week long course starting April 1.

Firefighters will train in a labyrinth to practice teamwork in a “building” where they can easily be lost, Zercher said.

The department is still short large cardboard boxes (such as the kind used for refrigerators), old mattresses and large pieces of foam for training exercises, however, Zercher said.

Residents interested in donating materials can drop them off at the locale on the corner of S. Walnut Avenue and W. San Antonio Street, she said, or call (830) 660-1482.

Firefighters will also train in “entanglement” exercises that simulate having parts of a building collapse on them and using a rope to get out safely, Zercher said.

The training program so far has cost the department about $700 in materials, Zercher said, but even more in man hours as they work on their own time to put the exercise together. The lack of a training field or facility means the department has to scrounge out abandoned buildings, she said, which aren’t always available. There also isn’t enough storage space for the department to save old training props, which are built and then subsequently destroyed each year. Until recently the department was using the building of the former NBPD station for training at E. Garden Street and Castell Avenue.

It’s been about six years since the department carried out a similar training program, Zercher said.

“We have a set number of state-mandated house training firefighters have to go through every year, but it is not not state-mandated to do hands-on training,” she said. “We don’t want to send out firefighters that have only trained on computers into a real-life situation because someone could get hurt.”

Fire workers currently do training with computer simulation programs, she said, most of which are housed in offices the department shares with the New Braunfels Municipal Airport, as reported by the Herald-Zeitung on Jan. 21.

Firefighters instead are practicing hands-on skills at the San Antonio, Wimberley and Guadalupe County fire departments’ training facilities, which requires travel, said Fire Chief John Robison, previously.

The city has 36 acres set aside on Orion Drive and Farm-to-Market 1102 for a planned fire training facility and animal shelter, but it looks like it could be about five years before a facility is ready, Digges said Friday, possibly because of budget constraints.

Since the department is part of a municipality, Zercher said, it is not eligible to ask for donations or conduct fundraisers.