Training flourishes at VFD

Professional firefighters Pat Vining and Ben Spaulding both moved to the Saratoga area in order to work for Sinclair, though they have found a purpose as training officers for the Saratoga Volunteer Fire Department (SVFD).

"You can really make anyone a firefighter," Vining said. "Especially now with as much as we train."

Vining and Spaulding have been working as firefighters together since their time working in Eaton, Colo. Vining moved to the Platte Valley about two years ago, with Spaulding coming this summer and taking over some responsibility training volunteers in Saratoga. The pair puts together regular training sessions that occur each Wednesday except the first one of the month.

"We train really well together," Vining said of the working relationship. Spaulding spent more time in Colorado working with larger departments and Vining has been here working in a small town and in an industrial format. Because of the way they can meld information together, Vining said they tend to pick up where one another leaves off.

Vining is a lieutenant as well as a training officer, and covers a wide range of roles during incidents at the SVFD. "I try to bring all the knowledge I learned from Colorado and traveling around the country doing trainings," Vining said. According to Vining, the goal of the training sessions is to show the volunteers things that they have not yet seen, but also to learn from them and their specific departmental practices. "It seems like over the last two years, we've really rejuvenated the whole department," Vining said, adding that the training sessions are well attended and, it seems, a lot of fun.

Spaulding is a former Marine who was introduced to firefighting though people that he met while in the service. According to Spaulding, the trainings help develop a broad base at the department. "It's more of developing certain specialty tactics as far as guys showing up, taking an officer role, taking an engineer role and assuming the firefighter role," Spaulding said, adding that while the base broadens, the individuals are fine-tuned.

Since Vining's time at the department, the volunteers have started out with the absolute basics-hose handling, searching homes, working on the rigs-and are beginning to progress to more advanced training, including different hose sizes, ways to get into homes based on the situations at the scene. "It's been nice progressing from basic to now. We're getting into more incident command type stuff," Vining said, noting the value of having a department where most of the volunteers can take on a leadership role at an incident, depending on who responds.

Vining describes incident command as "a lot of common sense" at its core, but the skills need to be trained over and over. Training and input from many people and departments overall adds to a healthy VFD with a varied toolbox of methods that work.

"The number one priority is that we want to make sure we're safe, but at the same time provide the best quality care and best resources we can apply to the person that we're running on," Spaulding said. "Because they're running on their worst day."

As the department training grows, specialty training will take place including swift water rescue, ice rescue and more trainings for search and rescue, adding rope rescue and high angle rescue trainings, Vining said. These outside trainings help with state certifications and advancement for volunteers, and help grow the department to a better SVFD than anyone had dreamed they would be, Vining said. According to Spaulding, building the foundation is vital for some potential different avenues and expansions that will hopefully be brought to the department in the future as Saratoga grows. Vining urges anyone interested in volunteering to contact the department to fill out an application.

Spaulding commends the volunteers for their willingness to learn and improve from outsiders, which had begun with Ryan Wells, a trainer that has basically stepped down since Spaulding's arrival, and Vining's work at the VFD. "The tactics that they have already started to put in place is light years ahead of some of the volunteer departments that I've seen out in Colorado," Spaulding said.