Welcome to Riverland Community College's Fire & EMS Training. Our team of professional instructors can assist you with your goals whether you aspiring to become a Firefighter or EMT or are currently in the field looking to improve your skills. In September 2014, Riverland Community College opened a new Fire/EMS Center to hold training for current students along with Fire Departments and Ambulance Services from across the State of Minnesota. The new Fire/EMS Center has its own dedicated classroom for didactic learning and many features of a real working fire station and indoor simulation props. Other features include:
• Gear lockers-students can practice putting on their Turnout gear as they would at a fire station.
• 50 PSI cascade filling station to fill air tanks.
• The Center’s mezzanine level allows for Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) to transport patients from a second floor location via staircase and for fire fighters to practice rope rescue.
• A car that has been cut by firefighters with a roof that flaps so EMTs can practice extricating a patient from a vehicle simulating a condition at the scene of a car accident.
• A Full scale furnished house to be used for Search and Rescue. Firefighters put on black masks so they cannot see, and enter the house as if it is full of smoke and fire to search for potential victims. EMTs use the house to simulate a medical call. The new configuration allows student to drive the ambulance to the front door, wheel the cot across carpet, down hallways and around the corners to a bedroom or bathroom. EMT students also can practice rescuing patients that have fallen in the bathtub.
• The house is outfitted with cameras that stream to the classroom so other students can watch the simulations in real time or recorded so students can watch themselves doing the simulation after to learn and debrief. The new Center joins the Riverland’s Fire & EMS programs’ mobile training units used both off campus at training sites and for our on campus courses. These mobile units include two ambulances, a Survival trailer, a Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) trailer, an extrication trailer, a Hazmat trailer, a Liquid Propane (LP) Trailer, a Ventilation trailer, a Tip over tractor, a Driving Emergency Vehicles trailer, a mobile air filling station for live burns and a Grain Bin Rescue Trailer.
“This Fire/EMS Training Center enhances the education of our Fire & EMS students and is a great addition to our new AAS Fire Science Technology Degree program,” said Brian Staska, Riverland’s Fire Training Program Manager. “This will be of benefit to those who employ our students. They will be better prepared when hired and be ready to hit the ground running. Fire & EMS Departments in the SE Minnesota Region will now have a State of the Art training Center in their backyard and be able to utilize it for continuing education and to brush up on their skills in a safe/lifelike environment.”
Riverland’s Fire & EMS Training programs feature hour-based and credit programming. Visit Riverland.edu to learn more about the offerings in Emergency Medical Care, Fire Training Continuing Education, and our new Associate in Applied Science (AAS) degree in Fire Science Technology. Riverland Community College, a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, is a community college that has inspired personal success through education for 75 years. Approximately 4,900 students are served annually through a wide range of credit-based educational opportunities. An additional 5,400 students are annually served in non-credit courses. Campuses are located in Albert Lea, Austin, and Owatonna, Minn. Riverland may be found on the Internet at www.riverland.edu. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system includes 24 two-year community and technical colleges and seven state universities serving more than 420,000 students. It is the fifth-largest higher education system of its kind in the United States.
