UPDATE: HOWELL - The term fire fighter doesn't really do the job justice, especially in Meridian Township.

ORIGINAL STORY: HOWELL - Your local fire fighters can handle much more than the typical fire run. MUSAR stands for Michigan urban search and rescue. And they, along with the Michigan homeland security board organized and funded this training opportunity. The firefighters in attendance are learning new skills that they don't use in their daily activities. "From shoring, from breaching walls and concrete, to supporting walls, to using heavy equipment like you have seen out here, to lift large chunks of concrete off, all that takes mathematics, engineering, how to distribute the load when they lift it up, so it really takes a lot of specialized training, more then what people think firefighting is, putting out fires and running on the ambulance, said Bill Priese, Meridian Township Chief of Training and EMS Operations.
The Meridian Township Fire Department is a member of the Metro Lansing Technical Rescue Team, a collaboration of local departments that provide professional response to incidents including: structural collapse, confined space rescues, and high angle rescues. At the end of the day training like this is done so that fire fighters can more effectively serve Meridian Township residents. "We want people to know that we do more than just spraying water and taking them to the hospital on the ambulance that when there is a different emergency like these technical rescues that we are going to be prepared to answer to them,” Priese said. The Meridian Township Fire Department regularly holds training sessions, and more information on the Michigan Urban Search and Rescue Training Foundation can be found online.