FIREFIGHTERS GET TIPS ON RECOGNIZING DRUG LABS

People who keep large amounts of cold pills or lye might be making
methamphetamine, firefighters learned Friday at a training program in
Topeka.

They were told that lye and the pseudoephedrine found in cold pills
are ingredients used to cook the illegal drug in clandestine labs that
sometimes burn or explode.

Two Shawnee County Sheriff's Department narcotics officers discussed
their experiences regarding the drug Friday while teaching a class on
"Meth Labs -- Bombs and Booby Traps."

The one-day course, which will be offered again today, is part of the
17th annual State Capital Area Fire Fighters Association's Spring Fire
Training School here. The school began Wednesday and ends Sunday.

Organizers said about 450 people from across Kansas are enrolled in
the school, which is designed to give volunteers and firefighters from
smaller departments a chance to receive quality education at minimal
cost.

The fee to take most of the classes is $20, said Jim Keating, St.
Marys fire chief and vice president of SCAFFA.

Keating said the school offers instruction on a variety of subjects,
including extricating crash victims from vehicles, conducting fire
investigations and rescuing people from confined spaces. Classes vary
in length from one to five days.

Several classes -- including the course on meth labs, bombs and booby
traps -- are being taught at the Kansas Expocentre's Maner Conference
Centre.

Other offerings include a basic firefighting course at Forbes Field, a
technical rope rescue class at the Topeka Fire Academy and training in
farm- and heavy-equipment rescue at the Hoyt Fire Station in southern
Jackson County.

Keating noted that the fire school in 1997 offered a passenger railcar
emergency workshop at the Santa Fe Railway yard in which Amtrak helped
firefighters learn to rescue train wreck victims.

Keating said that experience came in handy early Wednesday when some
firefighters who had taken that course were called to the scene of an
Amtrak passenger train derailment southwest of Carbondale in Osage
County.

No one was killed. Rescue workers removed 34 people who had minor
injuries while one -- Kathy Lambert, 53, of Stroh, Ind. -- remained in
critical condition Friday at Topeka's Stormont-Vail Regional Health
Center.

The annual school in Topeka also gives firefighters a chance to see
some of the latest in technology during a Fire and Emergency Medical
Equipment Expo that began Friday.

The public is invited to visit the expo, which will be open from 7
a.m. to 6:30 p.m. today in the Maner Conference Centre's Sunflower
Room.