Luling VFD hosted a weekend fire school, April 12th and 13th, at the training facility located behind Central Station on Paul Maillard Road in Luling. The school consisted of a seminar on Friday evening followed by a HOT class titled “Commanding with Confidence” and was conducted by On Scene Training LLC. The 45 participants consisted of firefighters from St. Charles Parish fire departments, Jefferson Parish firefighters, Kenner Firefighters, Thibodaux Firefighters, St. Charles EMS, and St. Charles 911. Saturday also included a visit from Louisiana State Fire Marshall, Bryan Adams, who also spoke to attendees. This is the 2nd weekend fire school hosted by Luling VFD, with the first school held in October 2023. These classes provide perspectives in command and firefighter techniques by instructors from three regions of the country. Local departments rely on each other for mutual aid which makes training together an integral part of training programs. Learning and keeping up with new techniques and advancement in firefighter tools allows departments to increase effectiveness when responding to calls. The main training was incident command, including multiple types of incidents, and live burn scenarios where firefighters had to navigate these incidents under fire and smoke conditions and using fire attack and search and rescue techniques. It is important to note that while local departments do have several career (paid) firefighters, the majority of departments rely on volunteers. There are many roles in fire service. If you are interested in joining please contact your local department.

We would like to thank all departments who participated, On Scene Training Associates LLC, St. Charles 911, St. Charles EMS, Louisiana State Fire Marshall, Luling Chief Barry Minnich for the support, and Luling Training Chief Stephen Stromeyer and his committee for putting this event together.