Firefighters in Pittsburg use hoses and equipment provided by the Kansas Fire & Rescue Training Institute at a session in May.

FireFighters know they will be doing rigorous work with the newest gear and technologies when Kansas Fire & Rescue Training Institute trucks full of equipment and staff arrive at their stations.

Chief Scott Crain of the Pittsburg Fire Department welcomes these opportunities for the 34 men in his department, 18 of whom participated in a training session early this summer.

Pittsburg, Garden City, Hutchinson, and Hays are state “training hubs” that host about 50 institute sessions a year; about 100 sessions are held in adjacent counties. Crain appreciates that new firefighters, especially volunteers from small communities, can build a sense of how to work together — with each other and with other departments.

The mutual reliance fostered in these sessions proves invaluable in a crisis like the ferocious tornado that struck Joplin, Mo., 30 miles southeast of Pittsburg, on May 22. Like hundreds of other units, Pittsburg teams responded that evening and continued rescue operations and support for weeks afterward.

And Crain, 32 years in the Pittsburg department and chief for a year, will con- tinue working closely with the KU institute: “We hear from them dang near daily. Communications are so much better now.”

Kansas Fire & Rescue Training Institute

Created in 1949 to provide a "Mobile Fire academy" designed to accommodate local needs through on-site training, it is a unit of KU’s Continuing Education.

Funding

Training is paid for by a fire-insurance premium tax on property owners, generated income, and state funds. sessions are free to 16,000 kansas firefighters.

FY 2010 training sessions

• 442 sessions in firefighting, fire apparatus, flammable liquids and gases, water rescue, technical rescues.
• 6,255 participants from 428 communities and organizations in 93 Kansas counties; 83 departments in 13 other states; 18 U.S. military units