Many of the 400 firefighters attending this year's Missouri Fire and Rescue Training Institute, along with the Midwest Wildfire Training Academy, come back year after year because of the quality of the training.
The training event started in Jefferson City on Wednesday and continues through Saturday.
"If you do not continue to practice what you've learned, you can't retain it, so with tight budgets at many of these fire departments, the firefighters here are taking back to their jurisdictions what they've learned and passing it along, saving those departments money on training," said Tracy Gray, University of Missouri Extension special projects assistant.
Gray said the training spans all levels of experience in firefighting.
"For the first-year firefighters, we can show them how to handle a structure fire, which is our bread and butter," he said. "Many of the injuries firefighters suffer occur at those calls. So we teach them what they need to know so they can go home and be with their families when their shift is over."
Other classes are for firefighters who have five to 10 years of experience, and there are even classes for fire chiefs. The scenarios include airport emergencies, water rescues, confined space rescues and auto accident response.
"If you think you know everything, it's time for you to move on to another profession because the emergency services field changes on a regular basis," Gray said. "We worry more about what's going to happen on an everyday basis. We've been seeing lately the flooding that's occurred in Texas so if events like that happen here, the information our folks learn here allow them to jump in their boats and use the skills they learned immediately."
Gray said this is still one of the larger events to be held in Missouri for emergency training, despite fewer students coming than in the past. He noted the winter fire school draws more than the summer fire school, with more than 1,000 students expected at the winter school.
"The summer school wouldn't come about without the support of partners like the Jefferson City Fire Department, Jefferson City Street Department, Jefferson City Parks and Recreation Department and the Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau. (Without them), we wouldn't be able to make this an event that allows those firefighters who come something to do and show them that Jefferson City is a good place to come because there is things to do here."