Training Nebraska's Firefighters
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Updated: 6:57 PM May 16, 2008
Training Nebraska's Firefighters
Grand Island
Long training hours are making it difficult to recruit small town and volunteer firefighters. But an annual school is making training easy.
Posted: 6:12 PM May 16, 2008
Reporter: Sara Geake
Email Address: sara.geake@kolnkgin.com
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The firefighter occupation is expected to grow faster than the average of all other occupations through the year 2014.

That's according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Small town and volunteer departments here in Nebraska are having trouble recruiting.

"The recruitment is a problem because of the time consumption of being trained," says Norman Hoeft of the Nebraska State Fire School.

Training like how to deal with un-deployed airbags after a crash.

Some new cars come with seven of them.

"We have had some firefighters across the country actually knocked unconscious by those air bags that you saw just going off," says the Nebraska State Fire School's Airbag Detective, Dave Long.

"They're in the middle of the extraction, a fire happens, something happens to the electrical system, the air bags deploy and they get hit in the head and fall out of the car unconscious."

To get this training once a year firefighters from across the state come here to the Nebraska Fire School.

1600 firefighters are in attendance this year.

"This, by the way, is the largest school of its kind in the nation," says Hoeft.

By getting hands on training and learning new techniques, they'll be more equipped to handle your emergency and they'll get the training to do it all in one place.

The 71st Annual Nebraska Fire School will continue through Sunday at locations across Grand Island, including Fonner Park.

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