Over 100 municipal and First Nations firefighters trained together at Sauble Speedway this month as part of the 31st Bruce County Fire School.
Over two weekends, the firefighters got together to train and achieve the latest certifications at the speedway.
Northern Bruce Peninsula Fire Chief Jack Burt said the speedway provided the perfect setting for county firefighters.
“It provides a very unique training opportunity for our firefighters to hone their skills,” he said.
The fire school enables county firefighters to experience working together as often happens in the field when municipal and First Nations fire departments call on their neighbours for assistance.
Local firefighters are also working to achieve new certification levels due to legislation brought forward in 2023, Burt said.
“All firefighters in Bruce County will have to have the same training as a firefighter in the City of Toronto,” he said.
To facilitate the training, the Ontario Fire Marshal and Ontario Fire College attended the Bruce County Fire School to run technical courses, all of which were completed at the speedway.
The Sauble Beach Community Centre hosted in-class courses and testing.
“A fire is a fire. We need the same training and the same skill sets. It maintains a higher level of safety across the province when we all achieve certification together,” Burt said.
Courses included incident safety officer training, hazardous materials awareness and operations. auto extraction technician course and live fire training.
“We were able to run a number of high-risk technical courses and provide another avenue for the safety of our firefighters while training at the speedway,” Burt said.