 What makes for excellence in heart care? It starts with one of the most amazing teams of heart surgeons and cardiologists that I've seen assembled under one roof and the region's leading technology in a new $40 million facility. This is the nationally recognized Heart and Vascular Institute of Eastern Kentucky at Pikeville Medical Center. After receiving initial training for their new Tower One fire and rescue truck, Pikeville Fire Department is now able to train their crew to better understand the inner workings of the machine. All 33 members of the department are spending 10 hours daily operating the truck. This portion of training is being orchestrated by captain slash training officer Brandon Hayton. Positioning of the apparatus, driving of the apparatus, placement of the ladder, that kind of stuff to true aerial operations as it stands to Pikeville Fire Department. The Suffin Corporation, the people that manufacture the truck, there's what's much more generalized. This is the functionality of the truck. Well now we're going to start honing in on exactly what Pikeville Fire Department expects out of this apparatus when it responds to calls. We have started into that dawning task of putting 33 people through the driver's seat of this, you know, 10 hours each a day. So people will see this truck on the road because we have to do it an exorbitant amount of driver's training, but it's just so that when it does make those emergency calls we can be the most efficient in our response versus someone who's got a brand new toy that doesn't know how to operate it. Hayton stresses the importance of Tower One, saying it is invaluable for the department. Pikeville Fire Department is willing to spend all the time and resources needed to protect the city and its people. To have a resource like this at our disposal is invaluable and when seconds truly matter, the last thing I need is someone taking minutes where seconds can do the job. And that's the reason some people would say it's probably overtraining, but it's incredibly essential training because people have to know how to use this resource when they need it. With updated technology and updated apparatus, there's always this learning period and this braking curve and our guys are quick on the uptake when we immerse them in this. That's what makes us so efficient at our job. So I take great pride in the training and being the training officer that the exposure I give these guys to all the technology we possess to make these resources invaluable to our department as well as, you know, our community and the citizens we protect. Reporting from Mountain Top News, I'm Nick Colum.