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Permalink Reply by Fireyladd - Retired Chief Sharp on April 10, 2009 at 4:00pm

In Oregon we have "Fire Corp" that kinds falls into this same train of thought. These are folks are support people who have talents and abilities that can support the fire department but can not fulfill a role as to responding or mitigating emergencies.Our State training bureau has adopted a position that if your fire department dosnt want to do interior firefighting you can get recognized as a exterior fire agency and thus wont be required to have SCBA or have policy for them. I think its BS because I can see people going in anyway without a breathing apparatus. Anyhow, the idea of having folks that want to support your agency without being involved in a Operations mode is a good thing. Both will benefit by this.

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Permalink Reply by Tony P on April 10, 2009 at 9:37pm

In a sense we have this type of thing. Not in our career ranks, where you are a firefighter, with all that entails, but in our volunteer ranks, yes.

Training in my State is tiered, as are different Brigade risk profiles. The tiers are:
Wildfire - wildfire and external operations only.
Wildfire/Low Structure - wildfire with some exterior structural training (this tends to be the minimum level)
Wildfire/Structure - wildfire and most structural, including internal operations.
Structure/Wildfire - wildfire and all structural operations.

Pump operation, for our wildfire/structure firefighting vehicles, is included in our basic wildfire training. Pump operations for a structural pumper is to a higher level, is part of the extended training. Driving of vehicles is a separate field again, with on-road driving, off-road 4wd driving, and knowledge of the legal requirements of driving lights & sirens.

So yes, we have different types of training. Training that allows people with a full beard to be a valuable, if somewhat limited, part of a Brigade with a solely structural risk. The system allows for Brigades with very little structural risk to do the amount of training needed to address their risks. An area with no village centre, only widespread houses on farms, can train to operate without having the members undertake what would be for them useless training - for instance automatic alarm and sprinkler installations. We have flexibility.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Wood on April 10, 2009 at 9:52pm

I also live in Georgia and the way it was explained to me is that "support" goes through the same training that we do except for the live burn. The only difference on a fire scene is that support can not touch a ladder or a nozzle. But i guess that i why they are still working it out.

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Permalink Reply by PFC Harmon on April 10, 2009 at 10:16pm

We don't have a state sponsored program like that but we have "auxiliary members", as do most of the other vollie departments around us. They do everything from drive the trucks to roll hose, change out packs and depending on the individual and their training they can spray water outside. All the training is in house and depends on what the member wants to do.

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