Marci Perry began chasing fire trucks as a teenager and got her first taste of professional firefighting 10 years ago when she joined a Pasadena fire department.

Now an instructor at the world's largest live-fire training facility, the Sugar Land Fire Department paramedic said she was hooked from the beginning.

"Volunteering just wasn't enough," Perry said.

In her fourth year as an instructor at the Texas Engineering Extension Service's annual fire school, Perry said she may be teaching, but she's learning just as much.

"New firefighters come in with new ideas and a new way of looking at things because they've never done it before," she said. "A lot of times, they are good ideas, and we talk about them and try them out. Sometimes we, as instructors, get tunnel vision on what we do, so the fresh perspective is great."

More than 2,000 students and 600 instructors from more than 750 agencies participated in this year's three week-long training schools at Brayton Training Field, TEEX spokesman Jay Socol said. The school's first week is directed at Spanish-speaking firefighters, the second is focused on industrial firefighters and this week is geared toward municipal firefighters.

The school is operated by the Texas Engineering Extension Service, an agency of the Texas A&M University System.

The municipal training draws firefighters from the smallest volunteer fire departments and those serving in the largest metropolitan areas, Socol said, bringing a range of skill levels together.

Attendance was down slightly Tuesday, Socol said, after some firefighters were called home to prepare for Hurricane Dolly. The Category 1 hurricane was expected to hit near Brownsville on Wednesday.

Les Bunte, director of TEEX's Emergency Services Training Institute, has been a guest instructor at the school for 34 years.

Bunte said seeing how much the students accomplish by the end of the week keeps many of the guest instructors returning for decades.

"It's simply a way the guest instructors can give something back," he said about the volunteers. "I don't know if we ever envisioned the school would be as advanced as it is today."

Corey Kalnasy of the Coupland Volunteer Fire Department in Williamson County said this is his third year at the municipal fire school.

Kalnasy said the training provided an opportunity to meet firefighters from other departments and see how they do things.

"You can't stop training in the fire service," he said. "There is always something to learn. You don't use everything all the time. You have to go over all of it."

Paulbo Morales of the Natalia Volunteer Fire Department said this was his first year at the training school. In just two days into the week, he has learned a lot already, he said, including how to put out propane fires, which require different strategies than a basic structure fire.

Morales said he was looking forward the training to meet people.

"I really like meeting so many new firefighters and making new friends," he said.

Morales said he has also learned techniques to battle a fire besides using water, such as shutting off the fuel source and introducing dry chemicals.

Mike Welch, Chief of the Hackberry, La., Volunteer Fire Department, said he's been an instructor for 22 of the 26 years he's attended the municipal fire school.

"It's like a big family, so I keep coming back," he said. "It really takes a special person to volunteer their time to fight a fire."

Training is key for successful firefighting, Welch said. Firefighters have to keep honing their skills and learning new techniques. Equipment and technology are always changing, he said.

"You have to stay with it," he said. "The more you stay with it, the more you learn."

• Cassie Smith's e-mail address is cassie.smith@theeagle.com.

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