By Don Kirkham
Quandary for the Training Officer: The department needs quality training to maintain their finely honed edge. The firefighters are eager to relearn basics and explore new ideas and thoughts. The courses chosen are even qualify for college credit. Everyone is ready to embark on a rewarding and challenging path of study – everyone except the financial sector. The training requests come back blazoned with “Not Approved” because of no funding in the budget. Not that the finance people want to discourage or diminish training, but it is a fact of life that training funds are scarce resources. Every training officer in the world has probably faced this dilemma at some point. BUT there is a much greater reason to buy into this training.
The fire service is nearing a crossroads. It can take the path of least resistance and allow law enforcement officials to take the lead in disaster management via the Local Emergency Planning commission to Homeland Security or take the lead itself. I feel the fire service is the best equipped and most logical choice to lead disaster management. However, if the fire service sits back and does not train, educate, equip, and lead, it will find itself sitting on the outside of disaster planning and management.
Becoming a professional in the realm of emergency management requires education, training, practical exercises, and experience. Those attributes cannot be gained sitting on the sidelines. FEMA has given the fire service the opportunity to learn at its own pace and test its knowledge all at no costs. What a tremendous gift. All you have to do is read and learn.
Two comments I hear from a huge majority of firefighters are “I wish I had a degree,” or “I must have a degree to be promoted.” Frederick Community College offers FEMA courses that count as college credit for $60 per credit hour. In essence, these courses provide self-paced, valuable, cost-effective training for the department, certification, and college credit that could be applied toward a degree. Naturally, these courses are directed toward emergency management. But what is the fire service if not emergency management?
What follows is a brief overview of the program to whet your appetite.
FEMA has organized its course offerings with course numbers, descriptions, and by defining a Professional Development Series. Not all courses directly relate to the fire service, but in every course, participants will learn something they did not know before.
I chose to begin with the first course offering: IS-001 Emergency Program Manager.
IS-001 Emergency Program Manager IS-001 is an introduction to emergency management systems and the phases involved with disaster planning to recovery. For the person unfamiliar with the emergency management process, this is an excellent overview. For the seasoned disaster responder, it is a great refresher. It is a jumping off point for the newly appointed officer that must be the representative at the Local Emergency Planning Commission (LEPC) meetings.
IS-002 Emergency Preparedness, USA This course explains natural and technological disasters. It also enables the students to design and develop personal emergency plans. It discusses the LEPC role in the community.
I chose to re-take IS-003 Radiological Emergency Management because these incidents are rarely ever encountered, but the information could be beneficial if something were to occur. It is a good, basic course for anyone who has never been exposed to radiological training, and provides a wealth of information for emergency responders.
There are several courses designed for the average citizen. These have gems of knowledge emergency responders can learn from as well.
IS-015. Special Event Contingency Planning This is an eye-opening and well written course. Every fire department or emergency services response team has some type of event in its jurisdiction at some time. This course takes the participant from planning to fruition. It contains many forms and helpful tips to make the event safe and enjoyable. I recommend this course for the entire department, not just the chief or officers. During an event, firefighters need to know the “big picture” and how to manage an incident where large crowds of people exist.
IS-120 An Orientation to Community Disaster Exercises This course offers preliminary information on the types of exercises that will test the emergency plan. It describes the emergency plan and how local officials test and evaluate their planning efforts. This is an excellent orientation for firefighters that may participate in a disaster drill after much planning has been accomplished. Knowing how the planning and evaluation process evolves will enhance the firefighters’ knowledge, skills, and abilities when they participate.
IS-195 Basic Incident Command This is a great primer for fire service personnel. It provides insight into areas of ICS that they do not typically use, such as logistics and finance.
The Professional Development Series is a seven-course curriculum designed for the emergency manager. Fire and EMS personnel will greatly enhance their knowledge, skills, and abilities if they complete this series.
IS-139 Exercise Design. This course has been developed to instruct the reader in the basics of emergency planning design. Every planning exercise teaches participants something they previously did not know. Learning enables all responders to become efficient and more able to carry out their assigned tasks. Students will learn the three types of exercises and their uses.
IS-230 Principles of Emergency Management. The communities first responders serve and protect has their own unique hazards. This course will teach students to recognize hazards and understand the resources at their command. Emergency Management has many partners and this course will help identify those partners prior to an emergency.
IS-235 Emergency Planning. Emergency Planning is an all-hazard or all-risk system. This course will teach the basics of emergency planning operations.
IS-240 Leadership and Influence. This is one of the best courses I have had the pleasure to take. It ties many ideas and concepts together to allow students to understand how informal and formal leadership actually works.
IS-241 Decision Making and Problem Solving. It is imperative for emergency responders to understand how to solve problems. This course will offer insight into the principles and practices that allow first responders to make sound decisions and understand different decision styles.
IS-242 Effective Communication. Everyone knows good communication is essential – especially on an emergency scene. However, knowing the underlying concepts is just as important. This course will demonstrate how to recognize and use good communication skills.
IS-244 Developing and Managing Volunteers. This course was extremely enlightening for me. I have worked on an all volunteer, partially paid, and career departments, and have seen problems arise because of the very issues this course addresses.
FEMA has gone to great lengths to offer courses that are well written, informative, challenging and easy to take. FEMA has many other courses and I recommend them all highly. The FEMA Web site for training is http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is/asp.
Don Kirkham is a retired firefighter/medic from the Delaware City (OH) Fire Department. He has a bachelor of science degree in fire science and in engineering, a master’s degree in public administration, and a Ph.D. in business administration. Kirkham is facility manager for Velocys, a research and development company, and was the construction project manager for Ohio University’s newest satellite campus in Pickerington, OH.
