MERIDIAN, Miss. (Queen City Newsfeed) – More than 200 fire chiefs and fire vendors gathered in Meridian earlier this week for the Mississippi Fire Chiefs Association Mid-Winter Conference — the first time Meridian has hosted the event.
The two day conference took place Wednesday and Thursday of this week.
Meridian Fire Chief Michael Evans said the conference is educational and provides firemen from across the state the opportunity to go over their legislative agenda for the year.
“A lot of it is funding. A lot of it has to do with fire fighters health. Last year they introduced legislation to help fire fighters that have cancer, last year. They do that, but most of the funding is local funding back home to support their volunteer fire departments back home plus their paid fire departments throughout the state,” said Evans. “You want all your fire chiefs and firemen to be on the same page. We all want to be on the same agenda when we go to Jackson asking for money, and it’s just important for educational purposes and also to make sure we’re on the same page to get money together.”
A highlight of the conference is it’s many vendors who bring in all sorts of state of art fire fighting equipment.
“Any kind of extrication tools, rescue tools, fire fighter hoses, nozzles, all the way up to the fire trucks that you see sitting outside. They’re trying to sell anything they got,” said Evans.
The conference also featured serval speakers and even a magician.
“What you see may be different from what’s really going on. We’ve got a magician talking about leadership, you know, and pulling magic into it, so you kind of see how that’s going there,” said Kyle Hill, President of the Mississippi Fire Chiefs Association. “We’re also going to have Dr. Mark Yeager from William Carey University talking about autism response for first responders and how to respond to instances that may involve people with autism. So again, what you see is not what’s really going on.”
Organizers said the conference also provides an incredible networking opportunity for fire fighters across the state.
“The fire service is also evolving and always changing, so we’ve got to continue our education and our knowledge to be able to keep up with it. Fire Changes. The structures change, our materials change, so this give fire chiefs and fire fighters the opportunity to come together, meet people, make connections, learn who some of these people are so that when we face challenges or our experiences or even our successes, we can call people up and say hey this is what we had in Meridian,” said Captain Justin Kentfield, President of the Meridian Firefighters Association–Local 52. “When we go across state or when we have disasters, we can call people up and say ‘Hey, you came to Meridian, you remember me, can we get some help?’ We share equipment, we share resources, and that just betters our communities.”
With Meridian hosting for the first time, leaders in the fire fighting community say it’s a great opportunity to show off the Queen City.
“For Meridian, this is a great opportunity for Meridian City to showcase its self. We’re in the beautiful Riley Center here at Mississippi State in Meridian, and it’s a wonderful place. Probably the most beautiful venue we’ve been in,” said Hill.
“What I want them to remember is how great Meridian looks downtown. I want them to have a great experience. We’re going to go to The MAX tonight. We’re going to get to see The MAX Museum. We’ll have a band over there, and I just want them, when they leave Meridian, I want them to know hey we had a great time in Meridian,” said Evans.
