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FF1 Mandate
Here in Washington State there is a rumor/idea floating around that there is a consideration of making IFSAC FF1 a mandate for all FFs, career(obviously)and vollies. I was just curious as to what the regs are around the country.
I have been in the greatest service in the world for almost 10 years now. Here in Pend Oreille County, our academy(volunteer) is approx 80+ hours. They have come along way since I went thru it. It was only 21 hours back then. They follow the same curriculum as FF1. It pretty much is a class that can prep you for the exam and practicals now. The administrators of the different agencies have done an excellent job at putting it together.
There currently is only 8 IFSAC FF1 or greater in the whole county. I am currently prepping for the exam and practicals. I have been instructing at our local academy for about 5 years now. I am a believer in the best way to learn something firmly, teach it. Now that principal doesn't work for everyone I am aware of that. I have really noticed how much I have learned in preparing for the exam/practicals, just because I have taught these subjects.
Anywho...what do we out there in the "nation" feel is required. Do you have this mandate were your at? How is it funded, small departments like the ones here can't afford to go through this process every year for new recruits. What about the retention factor. Is it viable to pay for this for a volunteer that may not even be in this service in a couple of years? What about those guys that would make a great volie FFs but freak out and melt down at the mention of the words exam/practical? I think that there is a sensible middle ground here but what yet, I don't know. What are your feelings?
Be safe and learn something new today!
I have been in the greatest service in the world for almost 10 years now. Here in Pend Oreille County, our academy(volunteer) is approx 80+ hours. They have come along way since I went thru it. It was only 21 hours back then. They follow the same curriculum as FF1. It pretty much is a class that can prep you for the exam and practicals now. The administrators of the different agencies have done an excellent job at putting it together.
There currently is only 8 IFSAC FF1 or greater in the whole county. I am currently prepping for the exam and practicals. I have been instructing at our local academy for about 5 years now. I am a believer in the best way to learn something firmly, teach it. Now that principal doesn't work for everyone I am aware of that. I have really noticed how much I have learned in preparing for the exam/practicals, just because I have taught these subjects.
Anywho...what do we out there in the "nation" feel is required. Do you have this mandate were your at? How is it funded, small departments like the ones here can't afford to go through this process every year for new recruits. What about the retention factor. Is it viable to pay for this for a volunteer that may not even be in this service in a couple of years? What about those guys that would make a great volie FFs but freak out and melt down at the mention of the words exam/practical? I think that there is a sensible middle ground here but what yet, I don't know. What are your feelings?
Be safe and learn something new today!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by paula beckham on
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we are diffrent here in new zealand to be a volunteer there is about 8 hours of solid pre course materal if you want to cram it the course is 7 days long mostly hands on praticl to make sure we know what we are doing with a exam in scba now that gets us to firefighter level so that lets us put the wet stuff on the red stuff then we have qualified fire fighter which i am going on shortly there appears to be a lot more theory for that one and its a 6 day course now if im right that is smilar to ff1
we are lucky here in new zealand that we are centerally funded for this stuff
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Permalink Reply by T.J. on
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Yes we've got smaller departmentswith in our county that have a hard time funding for new probies to get trained. This is why our County Fire Ass. pays for ALL FF1 training, this way those smaller departments dont have to worry about finding money or not finding it. It works out great.
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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They are trying to change it in here too. Texas requires 164 hours for basic volunteer. 80 hours is the Introductory level. If the codes are changed here, one will have to meet the Commission criteria (500+ hrs), or you cannot volunteer. This requirement is attached to a pending bill to allow the Texas Commission on Fire Protection to continue operating. Considering that there are volunteer departments in this state who cover 3000 square miles on less than $20,000 a year, a large portion of this state may be listed as "unprotected".
I guess they will have to change the welcome sign at the state line to; Welcome to the Great Cinder of Texas
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