GREAT FALLS — Great Falls Fire Rescue demonstrated a live burn cell for Leadership Great Falls to show the speed and danger of fire, as well as the importance of fire prevention.
President and CEO of the Great Falls Chamber of Commerce Ed Brown said, “We're here with our 24-25 Leadership Great Falls class. It's Government Day, and so they're learning about different aspects of the government.”
Leadership Great Falls aims to show Great Falls community members what it takes to be a leader in the Electric City. At the Great Falls Fire Rescue training grounds, the 26 leaders learned about the resilience needed in keeping the city safe from fire.
Brown said, “We've asked our speakers to speak about what they do day to day, what they see day to day in our community, but also what leadership principles they apply to their job day to day.”
Brown appreciates the dynamics in leadership seen within the Great Falls Fire Rescue ranks.
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Brown said, “There's not only one way to lead, there's multiple ways to lead, and there's different principles that apply to each of those leaders.”
What better way to show the importance of the fire department than seeing what would happen without them.
Deputy Fire Marshal Zaremski with Great Falls Fire Rescue explains, “Today, for our part of the demonstration, we're going to do a live burn cell.”
The burn cell is made to show traditional dangers you might find in a Christmas-decorated living room.
Zaremski said, “We're going to show some possible places in this room here. Candles too close to combustibles. Putting, if you can see the Santa in there in the back, the snowman, putting things over lightbulbs, some things we like to call this time of year the Clark Griswold Syndrome of wiring.”
The burns happen in Great Falls Fire Rescue “Shark Cages”, put together by Great Falls College MSU welding students and ADF.
Zaremski said, “The best part of [cell burns] is we've been on both sides. Firefighters and on the educational side. It’s better to do this, because there’s not anyone having a bad day when we do this.”
So, what can you do to stay safe?
Zaremski explains, “Have a working smoke detector in your house. It saves lives. We've had recent fires here in the last couple days, and smoke detectors have alerted some. And when our crews go in, the smoke detectors are going off.”
Learn more about Leadership Great Falls here.
Great Falls Fire Rescue can be found here.
