Poudre Fire Authority to Conduct Training on Colorado State University Campus

Note to Editors: Note to Editors: Members of the media who wish to attend one of the training sessions should contact Jason Mantas at (970) 494-8015

Poudre Fire Authority will conduct a series of full scale high rise training exercises inside Westfall Residence Hall on the Colorado State University campus on July 6, 7 and 8 at 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m. each day.

The PFA Training Division, working together with CSU Police, CSU Housing and CSU Environmental Health Services will oversee the exercises.

"We prepare for the worst, but we hope for the best," said Ken Quintana, director of safety and security for Colorado State University Housing.

There are several large multi-story buildings in Fort Collins, and these exercises will give PFA firefighters an opportunity to improve their skills in high-rise building fires as well as practice command and control of large scale emergency operations. The drills also will provide PFA firefighters with an opportunity to train for an emergency that requires multi-agency coordination between PFA and CSU.

"Thanks to CSU, our firefighters have a rare opportunity to train in a realistic high rise fire scenario" said PFA Training Officer Jim Pietrangelo.

While these exercises are being conducted, community members may notice theatrical smoke coming from the windows of Westfall Hall, as well as several fire and emergency vehicles near the area. The Westfall parking lot will be closed and traffic may be affected near Laurel and Shields Streets, and on Plum Street east of Shields.

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