Need to know what'll be credited, they say
 
By Michael R. Wickline
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Rural fire departments and the Arkansas Fire Academy must resolve training problems for rural firefighters, representatives of two rural fire departments told state lawmakers Tuesday.

To be eligible for state funds under Act 833 of 1991, departments must have their firefighters go through 24 hours a year of training certifiable by the academy. The state has distributed more than $100 million to departments under Act 833, including $10.4 million this year, said Richard Drilling, fiscal accounting manager for the state Department of Finance and Administration.

Academy Director Rachel Nix told the Legislature's Rural Fire Departments Study Committee that the academy has taken steps to improve communication with rural departments since lawmakers urged her to do so in September.

But Bill Barnes, chief of the Joplin Fire Department, said the academy and the rural departments have more work to do.

Some training is unique to a particular department or region and there isn't a clear way for the academy to review that training and for departments to know in advance that the training is certifiable, he said.

Janie Culpepper, representing the 70 West Fire Department west of Hot Springs, said the academy's curriculum is "fantastic" for departments with paid firefighters, but her department is volunteer and needs to know in advance that certain training will be certified by the academy.

Nix said it's easy for departments to find out in advance. All they have to do is submit their training plans to the academy to be reviewed, she said, "but not everything that everybody does is going to be counted for certifiable training.

"If you are going to say [training is] certifiable, then it needs to mean something and not just something watered down," Nix said.

Culpepper of the 70 West department said, "We train and work hard ... and it is really hard to sit here today and it sound like we don't take [training] seriously because we do." Truel Turner of Sheridan, fire chief for the Cane Creek Fire Department and an instructor for the academy, said he doesn't understand where the problem is regarding certifiable training. Departments simply have to submit their training programs with a lesson plan to state officials for their review, he said.

The National Fire Protection Association has national standards for training and the academy follows those standards, Turner said.

"If we are brought into court for any illegal action or malfeasance of office or if we've misdone anything, we are judged by that standard," he said.

Barnes of the Joplin department said the academy is reviewing the courses or training submitted by departments, and it didn't do that in the past.

"I understand the academy has horrible liability exposure concerns if they start saying, `OK, anything is OK,'" he said. He said there needs to be a comfort level between the rural departments and the academy regarding the training provided by the departments.

"I know there are departments out there that play basketball and call it training," Barnes said. "If [a fire department chief's] guys played basketball, then he is lying to you, and he needs to be caught. But for every one of those, there are a 100 or 200 that care." Nix of the academy said department chiefs simply have to send in information saying which firefighters are taking a particular course, the instructor for the course and who completed the course.

The academy is part of Southern Arkansas University Tech at Camden and has an annual budget of about $2.1 million.

Copyright 2007 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.