California firefighters train in Modesto | Modesto Bee

More than 140 firefighters representing multiple agencies from across California concluded a three-day training symposium in Modesto on Saturday.

The symposium, held at Modesto’s Regional Fire Training Center and several sites throughout the city, offered a hands-on portion Friday that enabled firefighters to rotate through the tactical skills multiple times, according to a press release from the Modesto Fire Department.

Training on Friday covered firefighting tactics of engine company operations, forcible entry, residential search and rescue, and residential vertical ventilation.

Instructors for the hands-on training came from the Modesto Fire Department, Ceres Fire Department, Turlock Fire Department, Stockton Fire Department, Ripon Fire Department, Clark County Fire Department in Las Vegas, Sacramento City Fire Department, Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department and Marin County Fire Department.

On Thursday, firefighters studied “after-incident reports” from the January 2011 fire on Coston Avenue in which two Modesto firefighters were injured, as well as a fatal house fire in Contra Costa County in 2007.

The symposium concluded Saturday with a lecture from Florida Battalion Chief Curt Isakson, who discussed managing water during initial hose-line advancement in an interior offensive attack of a fire and basic tactics of first-alarm assignments for most structural fires, from a single-story ranch house to a high-rise multiple-dwelling structure.

The Modesto Firefighter Training Symposium, now in its fifth year, is produced by the Modesto Fire Department.