Wisconsin's inland trout season opened on Saturday so an army of anglers marched into the Brule River looking for a bite.

Up the road in Brule itself, fire fighters were getting a bite, too – with the jaws of life.

Crews from Brule, Cloverland and Maple honed their skills on this unfortunate mini–van.

"We're practicing with Brule's extrication equipment. We're learning how to use it. We have guys in our department learning to use it because we don't have this kind of equipment." said Maple Fire Chief Mike Lundeen.

That's one of the obstacles volunteer departments in northern Wisconsin face.
Brule has the equipment but Maple and Cloverland have the man power so cross training is important.

According to Lundeen, "It's constant training to learn especially with the newer cars coming out. With all the airbags, it's keeping up to date on taking a car apart."

Air bags may lessen risks for drivers but they increase risks for first responders.

"They accidentally go off while we're cutting a car. There are so many sensors in different places. There's no standard of where those cylinders are that charge the airbags." Chief Lundeen tells us.

Training to work together like this is necessary for the volunteer–strapped fire departments found in smaller towns.

"So if they only respond with one person during the day because we are all short of volunteers, if only one person shows up but we have five then we know how to use the equipment." said Lundeen.

The chiefs from Maple, Brule and Cloverland say the solution to the human resource problem is to get more volunteers.
Interested people should swing by their fire hall to find out how to take part – or in this case, take apart.
In Brule, Dave Anderson, the Northland's News Center.

Wisconsinites who would like to become fire fighters should keep an eye out for this year's "be somebody campaign".
That will take place Friday, May 16th.