The house was burning, and they had to move in.
Grouped together in squads of four to five firefighters, recruits practiced what they would do during an actual fire as part of a live fire drill at a vacant home near the State Road 144 Interstate 69 interchange Tuesday. The drill is part of the first-ever Johnson County Joint Fire Academy, where recruits from the Bargersville, Greenwood and White River Township fire departments together are learning the ins and outs of being a firefighter.
At the home of the 7000 block of State Road 144 in Bargersville Tuesday, one squad made entry at the front door of home, hosing down what fire was inside. A few minutes later on the opposite side of the home, another squad made a forcible entry into the home through an entrance.
In a matter of minutes, the fire was mostly out and recruits were dragging out burned pieces of wood — where the fire started — from the home.
The drill was just a small part of the Joint Fire Academy a majority of the 48 recruits have been taking part in over the last five weeks. The joint academy is six weeks long, with training scheduled to wrap up at the end of next week, officials said.
“This is a game changer for how we protect this community,” said Jeremy Pell, chief of the White River Township Fire Department.
The Joint Fire Academy was made possible by a bit of luck. All three departments happened to have large hiring periods around the same time, which allowed for them to coordinate training through a partnership, said Eric Funkhouser, chief of the Bargersville Community Fire Department.
“This was the first chance that we had that we were all hiring pretty close to the same time,” Funkhouser said. “We were able to put them all into a roughly a six-week recruit class where they could spend some time working together, getting to know each other and going over a bunch of different training topics that are pertinent to their day-to-day jobs.”
The first two weeks of the Joint Fire Academy were dedicated to the administrative side of the jobs, including paperwork and onboarding. The next week and a half was spent on emergency medical services training, Funkhouser said.
After the EMS section, the paramedic recruits finished their portion of the academy. Now they are on the street, working with current medics as part of their training to get affiliated with their respective department or hospital, Pell said.
“You work side-by-side with another paramedic, and you study the protocols and write reports and treat those patients until both our EMS chief and our medical director says, ‘Yeah, I’m really happy with the work that you’re doing, and now you’re ready to work on your own,” Pell said.
The rest of the recruits, who are full-time firefighters, continued on with their training. Over the last few weeks, they’ve learned about extrication for car crashes, search and rescue, and live fire training. Before the academy is done, they’ll also learn about special operations, Funkhouser and Pell said.
The academy has gone very well, the leadership of all three departments said. For Pell, the academy has exceeded all of his expectations, though he was already optimistic going in, he said.
“I know these men and women, I know the heart of the people that serve on these departments. and they serve with all their heart,” Pell said. “But the class and bringing everyone together has by far exceeded my expectations.”
The leaders of the three agencies all say training together is a huge benefit. Bargersville, Greenwood and White River Township Fire all frequently work together and share resources, so it made sense, said Brad Coy, assistant chief of the Greenwood Fire Department.
“For the three departments to share resources, to share instructors, and then to train this many firefighters, whether they’re brand new to the fire service or whether they’re transferring it from another department, to get this kind of training is almost unheard of. It’s a huge benefit,” Coy said.
Training together gives firefighters a preview of what it will be like to work together on calls, Funkhouser said.
“Everybody’s got their own little differences between their departments, but with the way we handle the emergencies here in Johnson County, this just gives us that opportunity to work together and for everybody to be on the same page,” he said.
The academy is also what the community deserves and desires, Pell said.
“It really doesn’t matter what fire department (shows up) as long as the closest, most appropriate response (unit) shows up to make a difference in somebody’s life. And we don’t just say it — we do it,” he said. “We’re doing it by educating all these firefighters together in the same recruit class with the same values and policies and tactics.”
Officials hope to be able to do the academy again in the future. However, they say it could be difficult from a logistical standpoint, both Coy and Funkhouser said.
“We would love to do something like this again, if we can continue to do that,” Funkhouser said. “If this is something that makes sense, it always is going to come down to when each department is hiring or if they’re adding more people or if they’re just replacing someone.”
Pell sees the academy as a new way for the departments to do business in the future.
“As small communities, we need to be here to support each other,” he said. “It only makes sense that we train together and that we have the same policies, and we function operationally like one fire department because that’s the very best response that we can give to the community that we serve.”
