There is an old saying that to understand someone, you have to walk a mile in their shoes.   Members of the Altoona and Johnstown Fire Departments selected some people to walk a mile in their firefighting, steel toed boots.  Ten News Anchor Amy Mearkle and Videographer Trisha Gates were two of the departments trainees.  Here is a look at what they learned.

     Fire Ops 101 is a first of its kind training in the state to show people who make decisions about fire department funding---what it takes to be a firefighter. Normally sliding down the fire pole and putting on turn out gear and heading to a fire takes less than a minute.  But for some rookies like Altoona and Johnstown city council members, city department heads, senators and members of the media it took closer to 30 minutes.  Then we were off to the fire training site in Cambria County.

     One of the men who helped organize and design the class was Altoona Fire Department President Tim Hileman. " A lot of the decisions that are made with staffing and equipment purchase are made at city halls...alot of times some of the equipment they have never seen or know what it is we use it for."

     Whether it is tools like the jaws of life, used for getting accident victims out of cars or air tanks with state of the art technology that can help locate a fireman in burning building, the people who crunch the budget numbers often just see these items as lines on a proposal. This class allowed them to see them as a lot more. Altoona City Councilman Joe Rieker said the entire day was an eye opening experience. "We got a view from the inside of how things work and i think it will help us understand the needs that they have when they make requests."

     Not only did participants get to see what the tools are that firefighters use, they got to put them to work.  25 members were dressed in compete turn out gear weighing about 75 pounds complete with air masks and oxygen tanks.  There were five stations for the participants.  They responded to an EMS call of an unresponsive 175 pound man.  They used tools like the jaws of life to cut the top off of a car.  They used a ladder truck to get on top of a burning building to help ventilate the roof and then went into to an actual fire room.  The temperature was roughly 800 degrees.  The firefighters "in training" had to crawl in on their hands and knees pulling heavy water charged hoses.  They said they walked out with a whole new appreciation for what their fire departments do.  State Representative Tom Yewcic said the session was tougher than football camp.  "When we put the air tanks on the clothes are on and it is heavy but when you put the tank on you get heavy.  It is worse than football camp....I played for Pitt and I know what football camp is like...this is much hotter and more stressful on the body."

     At the end of the day, no one was ready to give up their government job, or reporting job to fight fires full time, but everyone walked away a whole new respect for these every day heros.  Representatives from fire companies across the state also came to observe the Fire Ops Class.  Companies from the western part of the state plan to hold similar exercises and wanted to watch the class in action.