MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Metro Lansing Fire Departments (Meridian Township, East Lansing, Lansing, and Delta Township) are conducting Structural Collapse Training June 4th through June 6th at the Douglas J owned buildings
on Okemos Road which will be removed for development sometime this summer.

“This is a great opportunity to utilize actual structures donated to help us improve our technical skills. It will also be
used for firefighter safety and survival drills later this month,” said Bill Priese, EMS/Training Chief. “I want to thank Douglas J Salon for allowing us to utilize these structures prior to their demolition for future development.”

The Fire Departments created a collapsed environment inside the building for training purposes. Firefighters are maintaining their skills and increasing their areas of expertise through simulated training. Teams of firefighter’s first practice supporting a wall with questionable integrity from structural collapse called shoring using two different methods. Then they practice drilling holes for placement of search cameras to locate people in a collapsed area. They are practicing structural collapse communications by using specialized markings. The markings identify whether structures have been searched, any hazards found, and/or any victims located in the structure.

Region 1 assets such as the Urban Search and Rescue tech rescue truck, purchased through a Homeland Security grant, contains various technical rescue equipment. This truck is housed at Lansing Fire Department and is maintained by Region 1.

Training with the Michigan Search and Rescue dogs will be conducted on Wednesday, June 5th. Mayday Training will take place next week.