Louisa Fire and EMT grant funds boot camp

LOUISA COUNTY Va. (WVIR) - The Louisa County Fire and EMS Department brought in the experts to teach them some new life saving skills. One question kept getting asked - is this still just the warm up? The O2X former military team put the firefighters and EMS team to work.

“We did our first session with the O2X workout program. They’re a group of trained professionals who go around the country helping out police departments, fire departments, first responders, and military with their just daily functional fitness and improving their lifestyle and diet,” Louisa firefighter and EMT Jake Sharp said.

The fire department is using its $357,000 federal grant to teach its personnel some new health and wellness skills.

“We try to encompass mental, physical, nutritional and overall body performance so that personnel to optimize and do the work that they’re required to at their peak physical and mental conditioning,” Leader with O2X Gary Alexander said.

“This is the most fun I’ve had at work. While we got to play some games, we also got to learn a lot of stuff,” Sharp said.

They’re now ready to put these new skills to the test.

“This is a really good set of guidelines to here’s how we can be more prepared to help the public because we could be carrying somebody down a flight of stairs, or we could be running up those stairs while fires burning around us,” said Sharp.

The course improves not only physical fitness, but mental fitness as well.

“The fire service or fire and EMS in general people deal with tough calls, stuff like that. So it’s good to know how to deal with it. It may not be you that has to deal with it, but it might give us tools to help another guy,” Captain with the Louisa County Fire and EMS Department Ryan Sampson said.

While firefighters and EMTs team work to take care of others, the O2X team works to take care of them.

“So often in the fire department or law enforcement or military. We are so worried about taking care of others and taking care of whether it’s our family or the teams that we’re with. This course really allows you to focus on what you need to focus on as an individual,” Alexander said.

This is the first of a four part series that the department have over the next few weeks.

Copyright 2022 WVIR. All rights reserved.

Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here.