On Sunday May 19th, members of the Potsdam Fire Department were joined by members from Norwood Fire and West Potsdam Fire to go over several training skills at the St. Lawrence County Fire Training Facility.

The first drill was in the newer fire training building where a smoke machine was used to fill the building with smoke to simulate a fire. Firefighters worked in teams to find a victim in the building which was a "downed" firefighter. One of the objects of the drill to have the firefighters communicate with each other and then to the incident command officer who was outside of the building.

The second drill firefighters used the old training building where a smoke machine was used to to fill the building with smoke to simulate a fire. This time the firefighters objective was to find the victim(s) and then have them extricated out the second story window and to the bucket of Tower 5. This simulates firefighters working together and using different tactics to be able to extricate a victim out of the building and into the bucket of Tower 5.

The next station, the roof prop simulator was used where firefighters practiced making ventilation cuts and working off a roof ladder or the bucket of Tower 5.

The last station, firefighters simulated a gas prop fire where firefighters stretched two 1 3/4" hose lines on a fog pattern towards the simulated fire. This drill developed teamwork and using the proper technique of slowly walking in toward the fire, having a firefighter shut of the gas valve to stop the flow of gas, and then back out without turning their backs to the fire.