Winter 2026 Volunteer Fire Academy Week 16

Week 16’s update (week 15’s training) of the Volunteer Fire Academy is action packed! It brought recruits into Paxton Fire drills, where they combined the many skills they’ve been building throughout the academy into fast-moving, realistic response scenarios. The 1993 Paxton Hotel fire in Chicago was a landmark event in fire service history, where 19 people died but nearly 100 residents were rescued. The five-alarm fire, which occurred on March 16, 1993, is now used as a training model known as the “Paxton Drill” for rapid ground ladder deployment. During these evolutions, students practiced raising ladders, advancing hose lines, forcing entry, and performing rescues, sometimes working with mannequins and sometimes assisting fellow recruits in simulated emergency conditions. These drills are designed to mirror the coordination, communication, and decision-making required on real incidents. It’s exciting to see how far the class has come!