Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by paul michael komandt on May 16, 2009 at 9:37pm

Try your neighboring depts if you dont train on the same night, or try to get something going on the weekends for people that want to further educate themselves.

We have the problem of only getting 4 maybe 6 guys at a training every week and they are always the same people.

Permalink Reply by Nicholas Alexander Wahl on May 18, 2009 at 9:30pm

Thank you for your help. However there is one more question,
1. In the moral and ethical code of being a FF and chain of command, should i inform my TO that I am also training at other nearby and mutual depts?

Permalink Reply by Kirk D. Baughman on May 26, 2009 at 10:52pm

at the dept. i'm on the training officer makes a training sch. for three months at a time. yes we may have 5 people sometimes at a class and other times we may have a packed class. we even have training at the station were you run calls out of. if you want more training have you thought about internet classes?? have you try to talk to your officer about adding more classes?? i dont hurt to ask. hope this helps you out.

Permalink Reply by David Gray on May 29, 2009 at 7:59am

Does your state offer any Fire Schools or training opportunities? If not the you should speak to your DHS reps about maybe offering some things for Specialized training. Courtesy says to let your TO know you would like more hours and as TO of my department I get a lot of requests for training. You have to understand though that there are only so many things we, as TO's of volunteer depts, can do about hours. Just like any other firefighter on the department we also have other demands on our time. I for one encourage my members to go to other departments for trainings not only to ensure they are getting a variety but also to ensure interoperability between the depts. Sometimes a new face doing the training can help you catch something you missed before. Also maybe you should see about helping your TO by offering to hold some classes when you are available so that the members have more opportunities to attend some sort of training.

Permalink Reply by Nicholas Alexander Wahl on June 26, 2009 at 7:06pm

Ok so my main reason for starting this was to not only get your opinion but your guience. I just came back from State Fire School in Lexington Kentucky. where due to overfilling instead of taking the bread and butter course i took the basic ff. that wasn't a problem because my to lost most of my hours and no i can respond for sure with out any doubt since i know havea copy. please excuse the tamblig i got my wisdom teeth out today and still am loopy from the side effects.

As for the state fire schoool. I paid my own way for everything. intotal i spent in al round 750 dollars of my own hard earned money. my fd didn't reimburse me at all what so ever. no gas money food money nada zip no command car.

Permalink Reply by Nicholas Alexander Wahl on June 26, 2009 at 7:07pm

should i write that off ask for reimbusement or what

Permalink Reply by Eddie Rogers on June 28, 2009 at 6:46pm

Nick, if your wanting to know if you can write off your money spent talk to a CPA. Some states allow that others don't. As far as training goes their is alot of material on the internet and websites like this that you can do yourself. Does your area have a fire coordinator. If so they are a great place to go for more training opportunities.

Permalink Reply by Joseph Williamson on June 30, 2009 at 9:18pm

We have a county training facility as well as weekly training exercises at the firehouse. My station is made up of 3 fire houses. We have a total of 10 apparatus including the command vehicles. Our typical training night has about 20 active members and several junior members. We are lucky that our training officer is also the county training coordinator so we do a great deal of top notch training. We just finished a very successful night that was really a mini fire olympics with several events. In your case I would train how ever you can. I often turn to the internet and the NFA if I cannot attend a county course that I want to atleast get the basics in my mind.

Permalink Reply by Bobby on July 16, 2009 at 3:43pm

YES!!! in our dept, the officers will encourage us to go to our neighbors and train with them since we work together on a lot of calls. But you must get their permission and also approve it with the other dept. I have even stopped down at the KCMO fire academy just to see if they had any Info/training that I could leech out of them, our officers were surprised that I did it but the officers at the academy were happy to show me some interesting things that I adapted to our super small dept, the main thing is to be respectful and honest with everything, remember that by going to other depts you are more or less an ambassador of your dept. The other dept will judge your dept by your actions and attitude.

Permalink Reply by Eric Workman on July 17, 2009 at 11:51am

As a Training Officer in my own Company, I encourage my men and women to attend any neighboring Company to train with them. Not only do you work with your brotherhood but the brotherhood of other Companys. I would atleast tell your T.O. that your doing that but try to explain that one a 911 call your going to be working with them as well and you would like to fimiliarize yourself with their work habits. That way you have trained with them and you will know what they can do and can't do. Hope I was some help to you. Stay safe and keep rollin'.

Permalink Reply by H.M."Andy" Anderson on August 23, 2009 at 10:51pm

I just came onboard this site, that is why I late in replying.

I am now a retired ff in Texas with a VFD. I have been training officer in my dept, and I teach at other depts. Any training you can get, and document, will help you in the long run.
When I started teaching rookie schools in our area, I went to as many schools as I could. This was to get ideas from other instructors as how to teach a subject. The same thing applies to someone taking a class. Get as many different views on a single subject as you can, this will increase your understanding.

Area schools and state schools will help also.

I teach at Texas A & M in the week long summer school. This type school will get you the most information around. Now I am not talking about the class room stuff. Sit around the pool and have a cool one and discuss with other people about how they do things in their area. This can double your education.
The discussion of a "foward lay" and "reverse lay" is good for at least a 6 pack!