News Photo by Julie Riddle Alpena Fire Department firefighters practice an ice rescue on Thursday as part of their revamped training program.

ALPENA — When the community calls, the new Alpena Fire Department’s deputy chief training officer said, firefighters need to be ready.

Preparedness for any situation is the reason the department made a recent structural change, establishing one person as a full-time officer responsible for coordinating training for the 25 firefighters who wield the station’s hoses, masks, and big red trucks to save lives and property in Alpena.

Good training, said Deputy Chief Rob Edmonds, who assumed the training officer role in September, “makes you redefine that you’re not as ready as you think you are.”

In a city Alpena’s size, 98% of a fire department’s work is medical calls, Edmonds said. Unlike in a larger city, where fire and rescue calls are more frequent, Alpena firefighters’ skills can’t be kept sharp through regular practice at on-the-scene situations.

In recent years, firefighters’ daily training has been conducted in-house.

Edmonds hopes to provide a more coordinated, intensive training environment in which critical skills are kept sharp and firefighters are challenged to build the physical and mental reflexes that will keep them safe and effective.

Edmonds has established a training schedule for all of next year, each month focusing on one aspect of training. January, for example, will address air tanks, including the incorporation of some new equipment expected to arrive soon.

Even firefighters, trained to handle physical danger, can have a sense of panic if trapped in a smoke-filled room, snagged by their bulky equipment, or surprised by an exploding wooden step beneath their foot.

Repetition and reinforcement during daily drills helps build an instinct for detecting danger and knowing how to self-rescue, Edmonds said, reducing panic and leading to deliberate and life-saving action.

More than simple drills, some of the trainings will incorporate complex scenarios and equipment, from a maze of tubes and tires to a confining mesh box laced with wires, through which firefighters must crawl in full gear as a stopwatch ticks.

Thursday, firefighters in bright yellow cold-weather rescue suits navigated the frozen water of Alpena’s harbor, practicing rescue of a training mannequin flung out onto the precarious ice. As wind whipped snow pellets into eyes and ears, one firefighter belly-crawled to the mannequin, wrapping it in his arms as his fellows on land pulled him back to shore.

Not satisfied with the exercise, which had gone too smoothly for their liking, the trainees moved to another icy patch, one yellow-clad form, portraying the victim, intentionally walking to thinner ice until he toppled into open, frigid water.

Ready for action, the remaining firefighters snapped clips into place and grasped ropes in gloved hands. A second yellow suit followed the first onto the ice, black-booted foot thudding through thin ice not far from shore.

A few splashing, ice-pane-breaking, rope-pulling minutes later, all were back to land, draining a little water from their boots and cheerfully teasing one another about who should consider eating salads for lunch so as to not break through the ice so quickly.

Afterward, Edmonds said, they would talk about what happened, what went wrong, and what they could do better next time.

Overall, the stepped-up training regime has been received positively, Edmonds said. Often, he said, the firefighters will race to see who can accomplish a task most quickly or practice during their free hours to beat their own fastest time.

“A lot of people think that, when we’re here, we’re sleeping, we’re playing cards, we’re eating,” Edmonds said. Few know of the almost 20 weekly hours spent in training, hours that are a must in an all-hazards department in which everyone has to be ready to do anything.

Practice, skill-learning, exercises, and dips into icy water aren’t just ways to fill the time between medical calls, Edmonds said, “It’s basically to help them survive.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.