Public safety workers came out Friday through Sunday for training at the Beaufort County Community College Public Safety Weekend 2016, the first of its kind.

More than 100 fire, EMS and law enforcement instructors and personnel gathered for a weekend jam-packed with courses ranging from fire safety protocols to emergency vehicle driving to life support skills.

Emergency personnel are required to complete 36 hours of training each year, but often have to travel to other parts of the state to fulfill the requirements, according to a press release.

“The Public Safety Weekend (meant) that emergency personnel, including the 450 volunteer firefighters in the region, can fulfill a majority of their requirements at BCCC,” the release stated.

“Most of these firefighters are already donating their time. Having these trainings locally means that we are not pulling them as far away from their homes and families,” said Johnny Williams, director of fire training programs at BCCC.

Among the highlights of the weekend was the opportunity for firefighters in the area to utilize BCCC’s new “burn building,” which includes a rappelling station, sprinklers, a confined space and a burn room, all meant to mimic the experience of a real fire, according to the press release.

Law enforcement officers from Washington Police Department, Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and N.C. Highway Patrol also participated in a Top Shot Competition to see which department has the best shooting aim, a release stated. The team from N.C. Highway Patrol took home the trophy this year.

Todd Alligood, director of law enforcement training at BCCC, said the competition was all in good fun and he hopes to come up with new ideas to keep the training fresh for participants.

“Basically it was just for fun and bragging rights,” he said. “We’re definitely going to be participating in the (next) Public Safety Weekend in some fashion.”

“The students all seemed to enjoy the ability to get to classes,” Williams said.

Some of the courses can be expensive to run, especially the LP Gas Training course, which teaches firefighters how to respond to flammable liquid fires, he said.

Code 3 Insurance and PotashCorp-Aurora sponsored the event, and Williams said PotashCorp agreed to cover the cost of gas for the LP training course.

For its first year, he said he thinks vendors, instructors and students all were satisfied with Public Safety Weekend, and the cooperation to make it happen was part of what made it go smoothly.

“We had good training and good fellowship among departments,” Alligood said. “We got to practice some of the skills that we train on all the time.”

“It went well. We had a fairly decent turnout for our first-ever weekend,” Williams said. “We do have plans to run it again next year.”