Moorhead Trains with Fargo

Jeff Wallin, Moorhead Fire
Published Friday, May 11th, 2007

Photo caption: Fargo & Moorhead Firefighters look at a high-rise pack

Fargo and Moorhead participated in the first ever joint fire training sessions on all three shifts this week. The joint training sessions were designed to increase familiarity with how each Department operates at fire related incidents.

The Departments have trained together for over a decade in responding to Hazardous Materials incidents through their joint haz-mat team, but have cross-trained very little on fire operations. The decision to begin to train jointly a couple of times per year came a recent decision to take a more active role during mutual aid operations.

To date, each Department routinely responded to assist each other with a Rapid Intervention Team (RIT). This team would only enter the fire operation if personnel experienced problems. Now, when providing mutual aid, Fargo and Moorhead crews will operate side by side throughout the duration of the incident as needed.

In Fargo, crews practiced attacking live fires in their burn building and did some work with high rise evolutions. In Moorhead, crews practiced attacking a simulated residential house fire, and discussed differences in operating policies.

Crews walked away with a greater understanding of the differences in each other's operations, and a greater desire to train together.

Another joint training session is scheduled for June.