Volunteer Firefighting Training

As I sit here in the cold, rainy, unpredictable weather of Connecticut, I cannot help but look forward to the next ‘Cruisin for Solutions’… We had a great week of fun and sun, oh yeah, and we learned quite a bit from each other.  

Good training is half education and half entertainment. You need to achieve your educational objectives while keeping your members attention and involved.   

Whenever members take outside courses, they should be required to bring what they've learned back to their department and share it with their fellow members.  

Last week I introduced you to the Fire Officer II course that I recently attended. This week we pick up at the 'interesting' discussion about the Fire Act grant.   

Everyone knows they need to refuel their car, recharge their batteries and take care of the maintenance of their vehicle. The problem is, people often don't think about recharging their mind.  

Wow! Somehow it has been four months since I last wrote a column for VolunteerFD.org. Many of you have written me to ask where the columns were, when the website would be updated and with many other questions. Well this is the start of the rebirth of VolunteerFD.org!  

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of bringing Todd Hoffman in for training at the East Berlin Fire Department. The class was held on a Saturday, and had 50 firefighters from across CT, and even one from NY.  

The 'dinosaurs' love to talk about the times they were covered in blood, walked through fire and sucked up smoke. After all, it looks good to come home covered in soot, right?   

As 2004 comes to a close departments look towards their 2005 plans, and training schedules are often at the top of the plan.  

I have spent the past 16 months working on my Paramedic at the Hartford Hospital (HH) Department of EMS.   

One of the hardest tasks for a training officer, especially of a volunteer department, is keeping training interesting.   

The Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute recently released a study titled 'Health and Safety Guidelines for Firefighter Training' that reviews an extensive body of research on firefighter health, injuries and safety.  

Jeff Seaton is a firefighter from San Jose, California. The Little Rock Fire Department brought him in to provide new training techniques for its men and women.