Department says overtime and turnover make live-fire refreshers costly but valuable

Officials described the training as valuable but noted it requires overtime and addresses staffing churn. "In order to get everybody over here, we have to bring everybody over off duty, which has an overtime expense," Brian Woodney said in the transcript, explaining a practical budgetary impact of staging multi-day live-fire sessions.

Woodney and a staff member emphasized the operational benefits for crews who have not worked together. "We can also work with people in a fire that we may not have worked with yet," Woodney said, and a staff member added, "So our job is so many things in 1, but, fire is not something we get to do every day, and it's, you know, something we're all super passionate about." Those remarks framed the training as both a morale and capability investment for the department amid recent turnover.

Woodney contrasted station-based drills and exercises tied to demolition or controlled simulations with live-fire practice under heat and smoke, listing hands-on skills such as moving hose lines, search-and-rescue, and throwing ground ladders. The transcript records training logistics and a rotating schedule for groups; no budget totals, contract documents, or formal policy decisions were included in the recorded remarks.