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Permalink Reply by Fireyladd - Retired Chief Sharp on June 11, 2010 at 6:45pm

Sean, I had worked in the Juvenile Firesetter Intervention arena for many years before the Juvenile Firesetter Intervention Specialist I course came out. I have taken it and felt it only brought my education part up to speed with what Ide already been doing for some time. I only acquired the training to simply stay up with my education and certifications. So for me it was mostly review. I say all this to encourage you to always be ready to further your educational base with more training and education. Whether to pursue your career or to simply add to your training its a good move. Good Luck Sean.

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Permalink Reply by larry jenkins on June 12, 2010 at 7:41am

I did this back in the early 80's. I was a firefighter and our fire prevention section trained several of us field personnel to do this. I got to tell you the work can be very disturbing. In 100% of the cases where the fires started inside the home, there was domestic violence involved. Some really serious, where I had to call protective services to investigate. One got violent in the interview and the husband beat the wife after they left. I tried to help, but felt we were over our heads. These children need professional help, not some firefighter who takes a 2 days course. I went into this thinking this would be great. I thought I could change these kids, boy was I wrong. Good luck

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Permalink Reply by Jason Knippers on June 12, 2010 at 7:28pm

Sean, I recently completed a JFIS I class and a "Train the Trainer" workshop offered by the National Assn of State Fire Marshals. I thought the training was invaluable, but I did not have any prior experience with the program. I am a volunteer as well, serving as Chaplain and firefighter. In Georgia, our State Fire Marshal along with the legislature is pushing hard for JFIS to become law for all departments and it appears this will soon happen. One course we were encouraged to take, along with the others, is an "Interrogations and Interview" class which is offered to us through our state police academy. In my particular class there were line level firefighters, arson investigators, life safety educators, and fire marshals. For most full-time departments, in Georgia at least, the JFIS program is run out of the prevention and education side.

Also, in response to one of the other posts, I'm not sure how it was done in the 80s as I was still a kid myself, but all of our classes (including the one from the NASFM) encourages the use of a multi-disciplinary team which include at a minimum, two JFIS team members, a representative from law enforcement, clergy, child protective services, and a counselor or psychologist that specializes in working with children. Being a professional counseling student, I can agree that we must know when we are in over our heads and when to refer. Also, the earlier a JFIS team can be involved, the better.

I would encourage you, the more training you can get, the better. This is a big, often unreported and under-reported problem that is not going away.

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