Fire service identity is part of the plan for FEMA’s Office of Training
After a controversy that lasted more than half a year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s new Office of Training finally opened just before Christmas. It combines all of FEMA’s training programs in one office.
But the man who’s running it, John B.K. LaBarre, says, “I have every intention of keeping the National Fire Academy a separate entity that maintains its unique character and image.”
The reorganization had been delayed by congressional opposition last summer. The Senate Subcommittee on Fiousing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies had remained “deeply concerned about FEMA’s commitment to its fire and training programs.”
LaBarre says the atmosphere of last summer hasn’t yet gone away. “It keeps coming up over and over. Part of it may be justified in the sense that the training has had a number of different heads. Now, here’s LaBarre. A lot of people are waiting to see if I can deliver—and that’s legitimate.”
The director’s immediate focus is getting the Office of Training “up to speed,” which LaBarre defines in part as filling 23 vacant positions at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Md., comprising the NFA and the Emergency Management Institute. Part of that goal has been accomplished with the hiring of 10 new NFA employees, which gives the academy its highest employee count in two years, LaBarre says.
He sees two main growth areas for the fire service within FEMA. One is in hazardous-materials training. The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act gives FEMA, through the Environmental Protection Agency, the funds to develop such a program. It also provides two new positions at the NFA, which has concentrated on teaching first responders, and the EMI, which has offered a few planning courses.
Civil defense is the second growth area LaBarre identifies. In the past, such courses at FEMA have excluded the fire service. “There’s an artificial fence put up saying we can’t use fire service funds at the NFA to teach civil defense and we can’t use emergency management funds at the EMI to teach firefighters,” he says.
With NFA Superintendent William Neville, LaBarre plans to meet with a number of fire service constituencies during the spring. One of his concerns is to make more training available through field courses.
“We’re finding that it’s very difficult for volunteers to come to the residence programs—they work during the week,” he observes.
Faced with a limited budget, LaBarre feels the need to improve cost-effectiveness. This is part of the rationale behind his elevation of the NETC’s library and media services—previously counted as administrative overhead— to the level of a division.-He wants them to use existing technology to enhance FEMA’s training programs.
One example is Eenet, the Emergency Education Network. This network of satellite-transmitted programs costs jiist 25 cents per student for four hours, he says.
In addition, LaBarre would like to take advantage of the fact that many local fire organizations are using computers. The NFA could provide training programs such as fire simulation for use in firehouses. “It’s a whole different thing to watch this building burn furiously as you make decisions and mistakes rather than sitting there and filling out something with a pencil and paper,” he says.
The new appointment is LaBarre’s first line training job. Since 1983, he had been FEMA’s deputy associate director for emergency operations, in charge Of the federal continuity-ofgovemment program. Before that, he was deputy director of what he calls a “highly classified program” of the Central Intelligence Agency. In both jobs, though, he oversaw major training functions.
And this son of two university professors “grew up with the idea I would teach someday.” He holds a doctorate degree in computer, information, and control engineering from the University of Michigan and is a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College.
But his first introduction to the fire service was during an earlier education experience. The preparatory school he attended in Millbrook, N.Y., had its own volunteer fire department. LaBarre was a member for three years, and “I enjoyed it immensely.”
