Equipment, strategies, and technology is ever-changing in the firefighter world. To keep up with the new changes, trainings are continuously being conducted locally with the Monmouth Fire Department personnel, with the latest being on forcible entry says Captain Craig Cozadd:
“The reason why we need to be skilled at that, is for multiple reasons, and we may use this on a medical call, may use it in a fire, just depends on the situation, but what it does is teaches our guys how to gain access into the building through multiple kinds of different doorways and locks. People may find this hard to believe, but actually we try to do the least amount of damage as we can to a door. A lot of times we go on medical calls, there are ways we know how to do it and the tools that we have and the way we are trained, because obviously we can take a sledgehammer and just bust the door down, but if we have a fire we don’t want to do that because we want to control the airway and shut the door and keep from getting oxygen in the fire, so that is one of the reasons we don’t do that in a fire. Also, we just try not to damage property. We try to find the path of least resistance and basically this training teaches us ow to use the tools to try before you pry.”
**Written by WMOI/WRAM Director of Communications Kelsey Crain**
