Three Moose Jaw firefighters were sponsored by Gibson Energy at the beginning of December to attend the world-class Texas fire academy TEEX for a week of specialized industrial training.
Gibson Energy’s Moose Jaw facility falls under the Moose Jaw Fire Department’s (MJFD) area of responsibility, so the company pays for the training every year.
“So, it is an advanced exterior industrial facility fire brigade course,” explained Sterling Macdiarmid, a 20-year MJFD veteran who took the course for the first time this year. “Gibson’s refinery pays for firefighters every year to go down and do the training, so it’s fully funded by them.”
Macdiarmid said that industrial fires can be much more complicated than, for example, a residential structure fire. Industrial fires could involve a variety of chemicals that require particular expert knowledge to safely suppress.
“It’s more specific to industrial facilities,” he said. “We’re dealing with liquid fires, pressurized gas fires, turning off valves, that kind of stuff.”
The training offered at TEEX, part of the Texas A&M University System, ranges from fire and rescue to law enforcement to homeland security applications and more. Macdiarmid said the facility is huge, spanning many acres, with the ability to simulate almost any kind of fire.
“Their facility is top-notch, second to none. And their instructors are very knowledgeable. We dealt with live fires, which is to our advantage, because then we know how to deal with it if and when we get those problems.”
For the final burn, or exam, instructors started a vehicle fire, a liquid fire, and a pressurized gas fire, then the trainee teams extinguished them on their own.
Aside from the advantage of increasing their knowledge and experience — and therefore their confidence and job safety — Macdiarmid said his group also enjoyed the Texas weather.
“It was beautiful,” he smiled. “It was plus 25 when we were there, while it was, like, minus-25, minus-30 here. It was a nice break, that’s for sure.”
The Moose Javians were treated well by the Texan instructors and enjoyed mingling with the large class. About 100 people took the training, most of them industrial workers rather than firefighters.
“This was kind of specialized training for their (industry) emergency response teams,” Macdiarmid added. “There was a mix of a whole bunch of people, so yeah, it was really good.”
