Fire departments team up in South Bend for joint fire training

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame Fire Department is teaming up with the South Bend Fire Department for joint training sessions starting Monday. There will be three separate sessions, each lasting two hours.

“We have a lot of newer guys so they don’t know the South Bend command officers and things so this is an opportunity to meet their officers and know who’s in charge and what expectations if we call South Bend or Clay out to Notre Dame what our expectations are,” said Tim Hoeppner, Assistant Chief of Notre Dame Fire Department.

The training will consist of tactic drills, pull and hose line, as well as search and rescue tactics.

The exercises are designed to simulate real-world emergencies, making use of engines, ladder trucks, and smoke machines inside buildings. Nothing will actually be set on fire for the drills.

The old Robinson Community Learning Center and the adjoining former Aldi will be used for staging.

According to officials, this style of training benefits both departments because they have real structure as opposed to the training towers they usually use.

“When you have an actual occupancy versus our training towers that South Bend has or Clay Fire Territory has um towers, it’s nice to be able to get in to real structures cause you see different layouts and it’s kind of new to everybody that’s doing the training,” said Hoeppner.