Stop the Madness!!!

Nothing that we say about the Tennesee incident is going to fix the problems in Obion County. That is a mess for the county policticans to resolve or potentially not. The fact of the matter is it is consuming the FFN website, and that is ridiculous.

Lets go back to "Hey what color is your fire truck", "explorers responding", or "leaving school" or "who is allowed to run lights and sirens in a POV".

Because nothing we say to eachother is going to correct any of the problems down there. This is just drawing a line amongst brother and sisters.

FETC

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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on October 8, 2010 at 9:19pm

if you trust these young men and young women to train with you and represent your department as members then you should be able to trust them on calls also. And if you dont trust them, then you have not trained them very well

You may be confusing how such a program can work or how it is supposed to work. Such programs are not in place to TRAIN these kids, but instead to give them a taste of what the job may entail. Training comes into play when and if they were to get hired as a FF.

For example, my dept does have an Explorer program through the Learning for Life. I started as an Explorer and still act as an advisor. We do allow our Explorers to do ride alongs at a station, but if a call comes in they are strictly observers. They must also earn the privelage of being able to do a ride along and could be sent home at anytime and also asked not to ride again if a crew so deems.

The Explorers have absolutely no role in the dept, they are not members by any means, and do not train with the dept in any way. Meetings are the first and third Monday's here and topics can include EMS, SCBA, ladders, hose advance and so forth. What happens is the Explorers have old hand me down gear to use, if we do an SCBA drill, we go over the air pack, how to use it and so forth. Eventually we get to the point where they wear it and breathe air. The next meeting we may expand SCBA to incorporate search, hose advance, etc.

This gives them a taste of the job, to understand some aspects of the job. If they so wish to become a FF, the rest is up to them. We do not train them to be FF's, we show them what the job entails. If they want a job, they go to school, get their degree, get their paramedic, pass the written test, pass the physical agility, pass the interview, pass a second interview, pass a medical screening, pass a psychological screening.....and then and only then are they allowed to enter the training academy. After successful completion of training, they are assigned a station and shift and have a one year probation.

What they did as an Explorer has no bearing on doing the job. Being an Explorer may give some extra consideration points on an interview, but that is about it.

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Permalink Reply by Stephanie Shirk on October 11, 2010 at 10:27am

John Crabbe, I do understand now what you are saying we have a dual system for our explorer program. One for potential Firefighter who are over 18 and enrolled or enrolling in upcoming classes for Fire 1. We also have a program for minors which is ran slightly different. They do not usually participate in our meetings or drills but have their own. All explorers though run on calls and can do tasks on the fire ground such as setting up Blitz fire devices, staging areas or even switching air bottles. Most of our explorers are expected to become members and our programs are set up to aid them to do so.

And Heather I am not quite sure what you getting at... Trusting in your explorers is a reflection of how much you teach them.