The following is a press release from Flint Hills Resources, a refining, chemicals and biofuels company based in Rosemount.

Four firefighters from the Rosemount, Eagan, Inver Grove Heights, and Hastings fire departments will receive special training this spring in Corpus Christi, Texas, through a scholarship program created by the Flint Hills Resources Pine Bend refinery in Rosemount.  During the three-day training sessions, the firefighters will receive hands-on instruction in all aspects of industrial emergency response and will battle live pressurized petroleum fires.  This is the 17^th year Flint Hills has granted such scholarships to local firefighters.

Tyler Moyna from the Eagan Fire Department and Brian Brandt from the Inver Grove Heights Fire Department will train February 26-28.  James Olinger from the Rosemount Fire Department and Matthew Yokiel from the Hastings Fire Department will train March 12-14.  In addition to the training, Flint Hills is paying for all travel, lodging and meals for the four scholarship recipients.

“This scholarship program is important to us because it helps prepare firefighters in our area for types of fires that – though rare – require more specialized skills,” said Pete Herpst, deputy fire chief at Flint Hills Resources.  “We want to help strengthen our local fire departments by allowing firefighters to gain experience through realistic simulations.”

The scholarship program is a part of the Pine Bend refinery’s long tradition of providing mutual aid assistance to the area’s first responder community.  The Fire Departments in Rosemount, Eagan, Inver Grove Heights, and Hastings are all mutual aid partners of Flint Hills Resources.  Firefighters from these departments have been using the refinery training grounds for free fire training for more than 22 years.