Parallel parking is often the most difficult part of any driver training course — staying between the orange barrels, learning to use your side mirrors and hoping you don’t hit the curb.

Now imagine doing it in a 40-ton fire rescue truck.

“This is like a driving test, but way more stressful,” said Ray Brandle, a volunteer with Vandergrift Volunteer Fire Department No. 1.

Brandle and around 10 others gathered Saturday in an empty stretch of parking lot in Allegheny Township off Route 56. At one end was an Auto Zone and at the other, a Pizza Hut. In between there were dozens upon dozens of orange cones.

The Emergency Vehicle Safety Operations course is meant to help first responders — in this case, volunteer firefighters from Vandergrift Stations 1 and 2, Markle, and Lower Burrell Volunteer Fire Company No. 3 — get real experience maneuvering massive equipment into and out of tight, narrow spaces.

“There are so many firefighters getting killed in vehicle accidents,” said Vandergrift No. 1 Chief Randy Dunmire.

Data from the National Fire Protection Association show that in 2019, just under 20% of firefighter deaths occurred while responding to or returning from calls.

“Anything we can do to reduce that number,” Dunmire said.

Most insurance carriers require such training now, said Casey Sorrels, of Vandergrift No. 1, but the experience and the practice are valuable regardless.

“This gives you food for thought,” he said.

He said Dunmire has worked hard to stress the importance of safety measures, particularly when crews are on their way to or from a scene: “Don’t become another incident.”

For Brandle, Saturday was just his fourth time behind the wheel of one of Vandergrift’s trucks. He’s more used to driving his Chevy Cruze.

“For someone who drives a four-door sedan, this is a whole different world,” he said.

The course includes driving the truck down an 8-footwide straightaway and then backing up the full 200 feet, driving down a 100-foot alley that narrows from 10 feet to 8.5 feet, making a three-point turn in a confined space, and more.

For training, though, there are no walls or curbs to avoid — just orange road cones. That’s a good thing, as Brandle and most of the others took out at least one or two on their initial drives through the course.

That’s what the training is for.

“You can end up in pretty tight spaces,” said Brandle, who was completing the training for the first time in his three years as a volunteer. “The department lacks volunteers as it is, so it helps to have as many people who can drive as you can.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)