With just three fire responses and a lighter load of situations for the Okotoks Fire Department, they kept themselves on top of their game with more vigorous training and safety visits in the community.

Almost 6,000 hours of training has already been completed this year and the department can't take a night off and must be ready for any situation that comes their way.

Fire Chief Ken Thevenot says it's going to be another busy week for his crew on top of the pending calls that come their way.

"Upcoming this week we have more training, some more 10-01, level one, level two firefighter training, some more pump operator training, we got some fire drills with some of the senior centres in town as well," he says.

Training varies week to week for the fire department.  They are trained in every possible emergency that could become a call for them.

Thevenot says you name it, they train for it.

"Water rescues, the hazardous material rescues are the incidents that we go to because you don't get them regularly like the motor vehicle accidents, extracating people out of vehicles, our team is very good," he says. "The ones where you don't do as many calls, that's where the training is needed, you really need to step it up."

A couple weeks ago during Fire Prevention Week, Thevenot emphasized heavily on a thorough inspection on one's home, but also says local businesses should have a fire inspection done before the end of the year. 

"Our annual inspections, we do those throughout the year too and this time of year where I put a push on to ensure that they get completed this time before the end of this year."

If you need to schedule a business inspection with the fire department, contact them at 403 938 4066.

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