This past Wednesday night I stopped by our Training Center to observe the hands-on training session that was being conducted. Our latest recruit class trains on Monday and Wednesday nights along with recruits from Bloomington Fire. the training consists of both classroom and hands-on instruction.
The training is taught by Lieutenants, Captains and Chief Officers from both Bloomington and Eden Prairie. when I stopped by the recruits were getting live fire training on how to handle car fires safely and efficiently. The two pictures below show the car fire simulator being attacked by a two person team of recruits and then a shot of recruits from both departments waiting for their turn.
While the car fire shot is impressive looking the shot of Eden Prairie and Bloomington recruits standing together/training together is the more symbolic of the two photos. The Training Center is jointly owned by four jurisdictions: Eden Prairie, Bloomington, Edina and the Metropolitan Airport Commission Police Department. One of the many benefits of the joint ownership is that we can all train together and become familiar with one another’s processes and procedures. when we all come together at a large scene we are all able to work more seamlessly together and provide our citizens with a higher level of service and safety.
