By Delynda Pilon

The Fire Within took 30 fire fighters from several departments across Canada to the Fire Department Instructors Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana from April 18-24. Bow Island won a spot in the draw to attend the conference, and the three local people responsible for organizing the Fire Within calendar were entered into a draw to  see which of them would attend.
Mike Torscher was the lucky winner.
“It consisted of two days of hands-on training,” Torscher said, adding their was a physical and strategic component to the training as well. Then there were several two hour sessions for the fire fighters to attend.
“They had everything from basic to advanced class sessions,” he said. “And there was a really large trade show that took up the football stadium as well as part of the conference centre.”He added he learned a lot during the trip.
“I got a perspective on the way departments are run in other areas. The volunteer fire departments run on a much larger scale in the United States,” he said. “I learned a lot from that week. The fire service is a continually evolving service. For example, the way we used to ventilate a building was stressed. Now it is still stress, but there are new and better ways to do it. Unless you get the opportunity to go to these conferences, you don’t get enough information on the changes.”
He added he plans to share everything he learned with the volunteers in Bow Island.
“I will be writing up some lesson plans for practices,” he said.
He added besides learning a lot, he had a great time in Indianapolis thanks to the planning of the Fire Within organizers who took their attendees to a baseball game and a high-end dinner.
“It was first class all the way,” he said.