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Too many chiefs, not enough indians....
In Rhode Island there is no law that mandates an interior firefighter having a certain level of OFFICIAL training before becoming SBCA certified. In most cases, training is NON emergency situations, and after a few evolutions, they get a pat on the back, and a yep your good to go. In my own personal experience, I have also noticed that qualifications to become a fire officer are non existant. It seems to be more of who you know rather than what you know and do. I know individual department SOP's are supposed to set guidelines to be followed, but when the people calling the shots have little to no leadership skills, or firefighting training in a non department classroom how do you correct it? Whats your personal view?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dan Hoey on
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I hate the fact that so many the first live burn they see is there first job, thats a danger to all but sadly they have made real training so hard Insurance companies the EPA its so hard to train the right way. We have taken it upon ourselves to train them more and limiting what they can do on the fire ground till we feel comfortible we have a training group that meets and decides when they can go further it take 6 votes for you go inside.
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Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on
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In your case that may work, and congrats if it does. In my case, getting 6 votes is easy, whose my friend this week? catch my drift?
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Nothing beats being ready to go at crunch time.
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Permalink Reply by Mechanics2Capt on
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I do have to say that things are starting to get better in the state. Maybe in 20 or 30 years the good old boy click at the state fire academy will pull there heads out of each others a$$. When have only in the past couple of years started teaching FF1&2 on a some what regular bases. Fire officer 1 and other 1 levels are hard to find in the state. Driving class like pump operator are just starting. There are not enough class being taught around the state. We can't go to Mass becouse it is supported by the insurance companies and so classes in the state of Conn are to far.
I started in 1984 and the town of Warren ran a class called basic firefighter and advanced firefighing. At the time it was just like taking fire 1 & 2. In 1993 after returning from the service ( GO NAVY ) I challaged the ff1 test that at the time was held in Bristol. NOT a NPQS class just the state level ff1 at the time. From there after getting hired with the Fed govt have not looked to hard here in RI for classes. They just need to come up to speed making FF1 a requirment to make entry into a fire. So if there is a large scale event in the state that we now that if there is someone on a rig that they must be firefighter 1.
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I agree 100%. The last I looked it was almost $2200 for firefighter 1. Thats insane to ask anyone to pay for out of pocket. It seems anytime you label something "firefighting" the proce goes up insanely
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The price per F/F is insane. But look at how the money is spent. The instructors get 25.00 an hour. Night of lecture are a least 3 hours, and practical days are 8 hours and need 3 instructors. Let alone that the coordinator gets a big check to do the paper work. Have never seen a department get paid for where or fuel being used on equipment. So the department also has to pay for that.
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Permalink Reply by Terry Lambert on
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I know down here in VA, you can not enter a fire until, until you are at least FFI certified. In our department, we do not even let anyone ride a piece until they have been through our recruit class. In that class we teach them the basic's, SCBA, Ladder's, hooking hydrants, ect. As for class's, sounds like we are lucky. There are 3 - 4 FF1 and FF2 classes a year. You can always find pretty much any other type of training class through out the year. We as member's do not have to pay to go to any of the classes, and if we do, we get out money back.
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Permalink Reply by josh johnston on
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Kevin,
AS I remember your first fire you went off doing your own thing ignoring an assignment from a captain. Your second fire when you had "all your gear on" there was no front door left when we got there, it was 98 degrees and the IC on the fire, me, told you to remove your coat 3 times for your safety, which you ignored!!!! I have a real concern with people who HAVE YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING and nothing to show for it. What i have seen you are a 6 month probie with no experience and no training. I have been in the fire service for 16 years and had an old wise fireman tell me one time, "there are 2 kinds of firefighters one who know what to do and one who talks about it." So far you are the later, that same firefighter told me to stay away from the second. I am not down on anybody and will always give a person a chance. The fireservice is no place for glory seekers and talk about wannabees. I work with aproximately 300 firefighters on a daily basis and i really think your information and attitude on this site and that you have displayed in person is degrading to every single one of them. The departments you work with may not be "up to your standards" but they are a very hard working and proud group. I emphasize group because we are a group. So far you have displayed the need and willingness to be the I in TEAM and there is no room for that!!
After reading your posts on here i for one of "your" department members dont trust you. You have to earn respect not demand it!!!
If you do not agree with anything i have said in this post please feel free to contact me at my office. I am very disappointed in your actions and would not normally post this type of information on a public site. However, you have obviously chosen this site to attempt to degrade our brotherhood therefore the site has the right to hear what my feelings are as well.
Josh Johnston
Johnson County Emergency Management Director, CEM
Past Chief Johnson County RFD 2
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Well Ex-Chief I have to say something in return to what you have written here. I have been a professional fire fighter for most of my life I am not going to sit here and brag about what I have done or seen, nor would I cut someone down on a web site like this. I don't know of your problem with Kevin nor is it my or anyone else's business but if your method of fire ground command is anything like what you just didon here I would not trust you as well. I have been trained by what I feel is the best fire academy in the world and trust me being its also the worlds largest I have a pretty good faith in it and I know I have made mistakes in my career and have watched others make mistakes and would never air them like this.
Again I have no idea of what your issues with this person are but sitting there and ripping them as a person on here sucks. I know a lot of old firefighters too and I have heard it said those who point most at others are trying to hide from the same fingers. If you have issues please raise them talk about them by why cut down a person in front of others if you did that to me on a fire scene you would have some very big issues I know not everyone is perfect, but being a management director and doing what you just did goes against everything you should know. If you have an issues this should have been done in private and I wonder what your peers would think seeing this post from you?
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Calling any one person out, especially by name was over the line. Whether the storyline has any truth to it, is your issue to deal with personally. A simple email with your context in a private manner would have been more appropriate.
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Permalink Reply by turk182 on
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You know I found kevin's insites to be very helpful and he has not said any names in any post he has written I do not know what your beef with him is but you should not have brought it to this site. In my house we always say that if you have a problem with someone it stays out side the door when you walk through it. And when I have to disapline or talk to someone I pull them in the office and talk to them in there not infront of every one if you do that it seems like you are trying to make them look like a fool.
Assistant Chief,
Shawn Conaway
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I know said in my post that i would not normally post a response on a public forum. I have some serious issues with some of your "training" and qualifications. first of all the GRAND OL STATE OF ARKANSAS does recognize outside states training. But, you have to have some proof of training. Just because you have said you are trained doesnt make you trained. I could say i am a NAVY SEAL and it doesn't make me one. If you have the training from Missouri and USFS and any other agency they can get proof of training for you, if you have it get it. Second of all you must be 150 years old to have served your time in the military, on the fire department full time, a US Forrest Service Firefighter and an over the road truck driver as well as all of your other lifes endeavors and accomplishments. There are just some very conflicting times and storylines in your multitude of stories that you are so happy to talk about, all the time.
You have not named any one person and i do recognize that and i should not have. However you have referred to the department and anyone on this site can see what department you are on. Therefore, you have named each one of us as a "brotherhood." I too came to this particular department from another department and had to gain approval from the guys. I do understand that can be difficult but driving all of your training and experience down everyones throat and going to a public site to discuss "all you do" is not the way to do that.
I do agree that i wish we had more training. We all should train more. No department in the country trains enough but sometimes you have to do what you can and there are constraints on administration that you may not be aware of.
I am not here to slam anyone i think this is a great site and can be used very positively by fire service personnel. Just remember that it is a public site and WE ALL READ IT!!!
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