Private Facility Bridges Training Gap
THE FIRE SERVICE IN TRAINING
Editor’s note: The effectiveness of your fire department can be measured in large part by the extent and quality of your training. Progressive fire organizations understand this and continuously seek ways to improve performance and safety. They also understand that fire department life safety efforts are augmented through progressive community training outreach programs. Following are just a few examples of the fire service in training. From time to time, Eire Engineering would like to present various training ideas such as those that follow—please send us your ideas.
When Brian Paquette decided to seek a career in the fire service, he was faced with a dilemma: Although he had applied to several departments and had successfully completed the required eligibility tests for the Manchester (NH) Fire Department, he discovered that most communities in the area, facing shrinking budgets, preferred to hire firefighters who already had been trained. Unfortunately, Paquette had no fire service training and few opportunities to acquire any.
Paquette wanted to be state certified as a Level 1 firefighter, but the course offered by the state met five days a week for several weeks, and he couldn’t take that much time off from work. The evening and weekend courses were offered only to members of the sponsoring departments, so they weren’t an option. Then he read a newspaper article about a private training organization. He checked it out and found it was perfect for him. Paquette was one of the first students to enroll in the New England Academy of Emergency Response, a private, nonprofit training facility in Goffstown, New Hampshire, that opened August 3, 1992. Today, he is a member of the Manchester Fire Department.
During the first 18 months of its existence, the academy trained more than 600 students in firefighting skills, emergency medical care, rescue techniques, and hazardous materials.
THE NEW ENGLAND ACADEMY
The New England Academy (NEA) was founded and is directed by Nick Campasano, an 11-year veteran of the fire service and a full-time lieutenant in the neighboring city of Manchester. He is a New Hampshire-certified fire and haz-mat instructor, a National Fire Academy (NFA) adjunct instructor, and a nationally registered EMT instructor. Following the example of the NFA, Campasano draws on a qualified pool of instructors from across New England to provide training in all areas of emergency response and to foster an interchange of ideas that includes urban, rural, volunteer, and career perspectives.
“The tendency today is to view emergency services as an interrelated whole rather than as separate spheres such as fire and EMS,” Campasano says. “Today a fire department also is likely to operate an emergency ambulance and a haz-mat team, which means personnel must possess much more knowledge and many more skills than may have been required a decade ago.”
In addition, Campasano points out, the media have helped make the public aware that they, too, potentially can be part of the emergency services system and that with proper training they could someday save lives. Thus, he adds, there is a need for a training facility that encompasses all aspects of emergency services and makes training available to individuals seeking’ emergency service careers, emergency workers seeking additional education to advance within their departments, thegeneral public, and the business community. Courses, therefore, are scheduled on many different days and at various times to,, accommodate students’ schedules.
As a result of his having taught for years in fire station bays reeking of diesel exhaust that had extension cords strewn across the floor and film projectors blocking the students’ view, Campasano planned to incorporate into the academy the most modern classroom designs and a lull array of unobtrusive audiovisual aids so that the learning environment would be comfortable and conducive to learning.
Ensuring that safety be the priority in all courses are specially installed devices such as an 8by 12-foot roof ventilation simulator. “It’s not wise to send a student who has never been on a roof before up there to practice ventilation in full turnout gear,” explains Campasano. The simulator is pitched and shingled and has a replaceable center. It can be broken down into sections for easy transport and can be set up indoors or outdoors. The simulator offers convenience as well as safety. It is always available, which is not always the case with buildings that can be used for training purposes The academy also features a forcible-entry door with replaceable jambs and a classroom white-water simulator that replicates whirlpools, lowhead dams, and various currents so that water rescue students can familiarize themselves with conditions before actually working in the water.
PROGRAMS
The programs offered meet the standards required for New Hampshire firefighter certification up to Level III, and students can pursue certification as a nationally registered emergency medical technician and as an international Municipal Signal Association dispatcher.
The haz-mat training offered meets state and OS1TA requirements. The NEA is a training agency for the National Safety Council. Other course offerings include public fire education, CPR, first aid, and continuing education seminars for emergency service personnel.
Hands-on training, another NEA priority, is provided through the use of equipment such as an ambulance, which provides practical experience for EMT students, and a Jet-Ski personal watercraft, donated by the Kawasaki Company, for use in water rescue operation classes.
Regional response to the Academy has been positive. Businesses seeking to develop in-house training in such areas as hazardous-materials handling; the public; and the fire service all have been quick to avail themselves of the academy’s services.
Several New Hampshire fire departments have arranged for joint training programs at the NEA. The towns supply the fire apparatus and tools and the academy provides the instructors. The firefighters and NEA students then train to gether. Since the towns supply the equipment, the NEA does not charge for thetraining—an important advantage for cost conscious communities.
The academy was awarded several contracts to provide training to employees of numerous establishments. Among them was Frontline Ambulance of Lawrence, Massachusetts, for preparing 71 of its employees for New Hampshire EMT certification. addition, the NEA serves day-care center personnel who must be certified in first aid and CPR to meet state licensing require ments as well as corporate employees who must learn CPR or be trained in how to handle hazardous materials. Campasano, for example, presented such a course for 30 employees at the Osram-Sylvania Corporation facility in Manchester.
The high enrollment in NEA programs has led to an increase in course offerings, and plans to increase classroom space. Additional equipment, including a cons fined-space obstacle course and belowgrade vault simulators, are planned.
