Recruit Academy

[divisionchief]

How do you folks train the new firefighters on volunteer/combination departments? We currently send them to the local technical college for Firefighter 1 State cert. Then we train require them to show proficiency in some basic skills such as knots, hydrants, gear donning, etc. Then they get hot-zone status.

Do any of your departments have any type of recruit academy or anything a little more structured? I would like to develop this at our dept. and am looking for ideas. Any help appreciated.

[KenNFD1219]

Connecticut has 6 regional fire schools that offer weeknight\weekend FFI and FFII. The classes are almost exclusivly made up of volunteers from the surrounding towns.

The local FD will finish the training based on their requirements once the fire fighter is certified, however the students are ready to become active interior fire fighters once they complete the class. The last class at the regional school where I teach had a candidate graduate FFI on a Saturday and catch his first working fire the next day. He ended up on the nozzle with one of his instructors who also volunteed for the same department.

[npfd801]

I play a part in a recruit academy developed by my department (credit goes for the bulk of it to one of our Deputy Chiefs). We're currently under the umbrella of our MABAS division, and run two "academies" per year. The first class is for the preliminary stuff one needs to have to work interior, etc. The second half (concurrent with the first) is for the rest of the requirement for the recruit to obtain his IL Firefighter II cert, HazMat Awareness, Technical Rescue Awareness and FSVO certs.

In essence, for sixteen weeks this spring, recruits will be doing their initial basics. The recruits that went through last fall, will now be doing the balance of their classes on the same days.

While not without its teething issues, I'd say things are successful. As far as I know, every student that has actually tried to challenge the state exams are successful (not all departments require their recruits to challenge the state tests). Sometimes instructional staff can be tough to get, but we're getting through that as well. All lead instructors are state certified, and no one is paid for the work they do to help put on the academy, unless we pay for an outside (i.e. state) agency to do the HazMat or Technical rescue portions of the class.

Drop me an e-mail, and I'd be happy to offer more details, etc. I could also put you in contact with the guy who put the program together.

The best result in my opinion, of going regional? The ties we've made with other departments. We work a lot better when on each others scenes, we share resources more, etc. Too bad we can't get everyone in the county to participate, but it isn't because they aren't welcome.