For at least a year, the Virginia Fire Department and the Minnesota State Fire Marshal’s Office have been working on bringing an Advanced Fire Investigation Course to the area. This past week, all that planning and hard work paid off. The weeklong class, held at the Virginia fire station, was a combination of classroom and in the field training. “We were more than happy to put this class together,” said Virginia Fire Chief Allen Lewis and Virginia Fire Marshal Chris Clark. “We had a vacant house which we were able to use for creating fire scenes and that added a lot to this educational experience.” Instructors with a wide variety of skills instructed the students in such areas as: interview techniques, scene assessment, report writing, and photography. On Tuesday, firefighters from Virginia, Eveleth, and Mountain Iron helped out by conducting live burns at the house in the southside area. “In essence, we were able to conduct two in-field training sessions,” said Clark. “We had one for the firefighters and one for the fire investigation students. This was a win-win situation all the way around.” The fire investigation students wrapped up the week by presenting their “findings” on the various fire scenes, something they would end up doing in their actual jobs as investigators. “The Virginia Fire Department has started offering regional training classes,” said Lewis. “In this class, we had students from throughout the state representing not only fire departments, but law enforcement agencies. We’re very proud we could do this.”
Firefighters from Virginia, Mountain Iron, and Eveleth create fire scenes for the fire investigation students.
Duluth Fire Captain Lisa Consie gets some camera tips from Photography Instructor Janet Nelson.