Hamilton Crossroads Volunteer Fire/Rescue Department held Training Day at the department’s fire station on Saturday.

Jessie Senn, Hamilton Crossroads fire chief, said the Training Day was a training course on new methods and materials and also a refresher course for his department and for other area fire volunteer departments that determined their firefighters would benefit from the additional training.

Senn said five firefighters from Springhill Volunteer Fire Department and two from the Five Star Volunteer Fire Department in Coffee County trained with 10 firefighters from his volunteer fire department in an effort to stay of top of current methods and materials that will make it possible to fight fires more efficiently and more safely.

“At Hamilton Crossroads we are continually looking for better ways to protect our community and ourselves as we do our jobs,” Senn said. “We were proud to have firefighters from Springhill and Five Star train with us.”

The Hamilton Crossroads Training Day focused on different materials and how they burn and the hazards associated with fight those fires.

“Many kinds of materials are being hauled on highways these days and it’s important to know what they are, how to recognize them and how to the fight them when they’re on fire,” Senn said. “We had a car donated to us and it was set on fire and our firefighters had to chance to fight a vehicle fire.”

The firefighters also trained how to respond when a victim is trapped inside a burning building.

“When someone is trapped in burning building, that’s even greater stress on firefighters,” Senn said. “Knowing how to handle that kind of stress helps a firefighter do his job better and safer.”

Communication among firefighters during a fire is important. Having firefighters from other departments provided opportunities for communication among the departments.

“Communication is always important, especially when different fire departments are working a fire,” Senn said.

The firefighters shared ideas and methods that have been beneficial to their volunteer fire departments.

“It was a very beneficial Training Day for all of us,” Senn said.

Hamilton Crossroad Volunteer Fire/Rescue is the only local unit that runs medical calls.

“We run medical calls because Hamilton is a long way from Troy Regional Medical Center,” Senn said. “We are continually looking for ways to better serve our community and additional training is one of the most important ways we can do that. We are also proud to have new people that want to join us.”

Firefighters that participated in Training Day were Hamilton Crossroads:

Chief Jesse Senn, Lt. Andrew Stephens, Jack Stone, Andy McMillian, Kyle Porter, Timmy Williams, Peyton Brad, Keith Williams and President/ Firefighter Deslie Galloway; Five Star, Chief Joe Mccollough and Assistant chief, Daniel Brundrick; Spring Hill FD, Chief Jeff Helms, Ryan Helms and Dustin Bowmen.