FTSFSR 04-04-2012 INFORMATION #3

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COVER FEATURE » A DANGEROUS CROSSROAD "The cQUl~ty I vas jest in has ,3l fire cie;aartl~~e,nts and ali of therrl have an {aerial} t(~uc~;. is that food rltillzatlon ~~ the citizens' money?° 1, ~~ ,; ,: ,~.t ~ ;c,iic ~ }~,r:. , ~~~ ac~r~e tl to volunteers, especially during hard economic times. "The class below Firefighter I, which we call fundamentals of firefighting, is around 88 hours;' Ray said. "We have (a Firefighter 1 class) that I just came from that runs five months for three nights a week." Tn Texas, there are no state man- dates regarding volunteer firefighter training, which may explain to some degree why it is able to attract recruits. However, each department can set its own training requirements. At Barron's department in Manchaca, new recruits must go through anine-month-long academy before fully participating in fireground operations. This has some in [he fire service questioning the one-size-fits-all training requirements of NFPA toot and looking for pragmatic alternatives. "There was a report in South Caro- lina on the delivery of statewide train- ing in t976," Ray said. "One of the rec- ommendations was that there would be standards and delivery for the training of volunteers, and another objective for career firefighters. It is funny that they recognized back then the need for two separate delivery systems." Ray added that he is looking to cre- ate training standards by [he end of this year to meet the specific needs of indi- vidual fire departments. For example, according to Ray, many rural fire depart- ments in South Carolina and Tennessee only make exterior fire attacks. Likewise, some volunteers may only drive awater- supply truck. Meanwhile, Montana offers an exterior firefighter certifica- tion, he said. "Not everybody is going in the burn- ing building, so shouldn't there be certification levels that are commen- surate with their duties?" Ray asked. "We (need to) look at the community and what our risks are, then take (into account) our fire department and what their capabilities are, and then deliver the training:' Stittleburg agrees. He told how many years ago he had to deliver training on fire sprinklers when none of the build- ings in his town had such systems. "What we are training for has to be appropriate," he said. New Thinking is Needed Like Ray, Stittleburg also thinks that volunteer departments need to be hon- est about what services they can provide and adjust their training and equipment to that level. Some departments cannot do hazmat and need [o let government officials know that they will have to go elsewhere for that service. "We can't be in a situation where we are representing that we can deliver the services that we dolt have [he skills to deliver," Stittleburg said. "If we can't do Swiftwater rescue, then we probably better not have an airboat that we don't have adequate training to operate.° Stittleburg would like to see fire- fighter training presented in a la carte modules that allows the chief to select those that are best suited for the depart- ment. For example, training on aerial units or high-rise buildings is irrelevant in his community because such struc- tures dolt exist, but water movement, barn fires and silo fires are very rele- vant. "It (would) cut down on the time they spend training and you are going to get a lot better response to the train- ing;' hesaid. Stittleburg, Barron and Ray agree that a declining number of volunteer firelighters would raise significantly the risk of property and life loss. It also will result in less fire-prevention educa- tion, less code enforcement and perhaps worse ISO ratings. "(Fire prevention[ is going to suf- fer," Barron said. "It is pretty much the first thing to go. We are still trying to tread water to make sure our calls are answered and our trucks are running and we've got protective clothing nn." It also is going to force some volun- teer fire departments to more heavily rely on their neighboring departments through mutual- and automatic-aid agreements. "Somebody tweeted [recently) that mutual aid is a town shirking its respon- sibilities," Ray said. "No it's not - it is smart utilization of resources and play- ing nice together." Ray took that thinking even further by calling on chiefs to examine the appa- ratus they and their neighbors have. "The county I was just in has 37 fire departments and all of them have an (aerial) truck Is that good utilization of the citizens' money? One of the depart- ments has an E-One Bronco. Do you know the training needed to properly function that bad boy? Why couldn't one place have that unit and focus on its use?" Regardless of whether the NFPA numbers hold true, the paradigm for volunteer firefighting is shifting before our eyes. In the end, there likely is no magic-bullet solution to the current dilemma. Accordingly, volunteer chiefs will need to analyze their individual sit- uations and try on a series of fixes until they find the ones that fit. ^ 56 M.~RCH 2012 FIREGHIEF.COM