Hundreds turning out for fire and rescue college

Hundreds of people will get fired up in McDowell this weekend.

It's time for the 2010 McDowell Fire and Rescue College, the largest of its kind in North Carolina and one of the biggest in the southeastern U.S.

This week, approximately 1,600 students had preregistered, which is down for the first year, according to Brad Ledbetter, director of continuing education at McDowell Technical Community College and director of the Fire and Rescue College.

Ledbetter added that this year's preregistration dropped by about 250. That's coming on the heels of last year's weekend event, which has been the most successful thus far, with 1,548 participants, said Ledbetter.

"I think it's the budget," he stated. "Last year, people were told to cut their budgets, but they had already made plans to attend. Now that we're in a new budget cycle, they might have had to cut our school out."

He said 35 to 40 people usually register on site, and he's hoping maybe more plan to do that this year.

More than 125 instructors, many of whom are career emergency workers and experts in their fields, will teach the 77 classes being offered.

Featured will be the usual certification courses like Pumps, Ladders, Sprinklers, Ventilation, Ropes and Emergency Vehicle Driver and the more dramatic courses like ATVs in Fire and Rescue, Basic Gang Awareness, Bus Extrication, Helicopter Use in Rescue, ID and Recognition of the Occult and Response to Hazmat/terrorism.

The two new classes that have been added this year – Emergency Response to Hybrid Vehicle Incidents and Explosives, Bombs and Booby Traps – have proven to be popular. Both are full, Ledbetter stated.

The 2010 Fire and Rescue booklet says about the hybrid vehicle course: "These vehicles possess hidden dangers that, if not recognized and quickly mitigated, could prove critical or even fatal to the emergency responders or even to a bystander. Basic procedures must be followed when dealing with (a hybrid/electric vehicle) that has been involved in a collision, immersed in water or involved with fire."

The booklet states that the explosives class will take emergency workers "through the different types of explosive environments and paraphernalia that make the elements work for mankind for good, or bad, through IEDs (improvised explosive devices), bomb threats, searches and booby traps that the first responder may have to deal with in today's world."

Each emergency worker participates in one class. Depending on which course he chooses, he will receive classroom training, hands-on training or both.

Each participant pays $75 to participate in the school. The majority of that -- $65 – goes to the state and $10 stays in McDowell. Ledbetter said most college's charge a local fee of $20.

The local money is used to help maintain equipment at the McDowell Fire & Rescue Association training grounds on Old Greenlee Road or is spent on training opportunities for all of the county's departments, said Ledbetter.

He added that he has dozens of volunteers who help with the Fire and Rescue College each year. This year, for the first time, Chip Cross is offering his MTCC business students extra credit if they aid in the event.

More than 50 vendors will display their wares – ranging from fire and rescue equipment to T-shirts and flashlights -- in the commons area of the high school throughout the weekend.

The college will be in operation Friday from 7 to 10 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 or 4 p.m.

Classes will be taking place at the fire training grounds, McDowell High, West Junior High and several other places throughout the county. Firefighters will burn a house at 106 Grayson St. in Marion as part of the training.

The Fire and Rescue College is sponsored by the McDowell Fire and Rescue Association, McDowell Technical Community College, the McDowell County Rescue Association, the McDowell County Fire Commission and the McDowell County Emergency Management Agency.