About 150 firefighters, law enforcement and emergency personnel from across the state are several steps closer to meeting needed certification requirements after spending the weekend at Haywood Community College.

This is the third year where a dozen or so courses were made available over a three-day period to help emergency service personnel obtain needed training.

From the beginning level courses on emergency vehicle driving or working with ropes or ladders to much longer classes on explosives, survival training or combating structure fires, those on the front lines during a disaster had no trouble finding a course to help beef up their skills.

On Sunday, Benny Coleman, an HCC instructor and a flight paramedic on the Mountain Area Medical Airlife (MAMA), arranged for the helicopter to ...