Livonia politicians don gear to get firsthand firefighting experience
Posted On: May 133, 2019
State Sen. Dayna Polehanki was a tad out of breath Saturday after completing a search-and-rescue mission like any of her local firefighters would.
The conditions were dark. She had to keep talking to her partner, state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, while feeling against the wall to find the dummy and then drag it to safety.
“Wow,” said Polehanki, D-Livonia. “That was really intense. It‘s like being in a haunted mansion on your knees, … and not being able to breathe very well and you can’t see a dang thing. I don’t know how they do it. Just to make that little 20-foot trek and back … it took everything out of me.”
The fire drill was part of Livonia Fire Department’s Fire Ops 101 event. At the Glendale Street training campus, firefighters exposed several elected officials to the thrills and chills that come with saving people from smoke and fire.
They also were able to rip apart a vehicle with Jaws of Life equipment and practice saving lives with CPR, a heart monitor and other paramedic tools.
The grand finale was surviving a live burn of plywood, paper and heat that reached hundreds of degrees within a burn chamber.
According to the International Association of Fire Fighters’ website, Fire Ops 101 events are held to expose elected officials to the smoke, sweat, adrenaline rush and physical stress of the job, along with complexities like staffing and equipment.
Fire Lt. Nathan Lee, who also serves as the firefighters' union president, said the department hasn’t hosted a Fire Ops 101 event in several years.
He was impressed with the several elected officials and city staffers who came by to put on bulky firefighting gear and learn more about their local firefighters, who also serve as paramedics.
The physical memory, he hopes, will give them greater respect for firefighters.
“It’s such a resource dependent job,” Lee said. “Our primary goal is to protect the citizens. This is part of that - educating our elected officials so that we can get the proper resources we need to protect the citizens.”
Wearing the gear and getting some tutoring from firefighters impressed Livonia Councilman Scott Bahr.
“It’s just fun,” he said. “From the practical standpoint of it, … they come before City Council multiple times per year, probably almost every other meeting, with certain purchase requests and contract agreements. Doing something like this is invaluable.”
He was able to play with the department’s Jaws of Life equipment.
“Now that I’ve used those, …I can’t imagine how heavy the old ones were,” Bahr said. “The better we can understand what they’re dealing with every day, the more informed we can be when we’re considering budget requests.”
Councilwoman Kathleen McIntyre called Saturday’s drills intense.
“As one of them just said, we went into a controlled situation where we knew we were safe and could come out any time,” McIntyre said. “When they go in, they don’t know what they’re facing. They don’t know what’s on fire. It was incredible.”