Goal is to Increase Adoption of Training Based on NFPA Standards
On September 27 at its annual Fall Board meeting in Grand Rapids, MI, the NVFC Board of Directors voted to develop an initiative to help volunteer fire departments meet training requirements based on NFPA professional qualification standards. The NVFC initiative will focus on helping volunteer departments struggling to meet basic training requirements.
NVFC representatives serve on various NFPA standards committees, including NFPA 1001: Standard for Fire Fighter Professional Qualifications, and the NVFC works generally to promote training within the volunteer fire service. Due to time and resource constraints, many volunteer departments have found it difficult to keep up with basic training requirements as the scope and practice of ‘firefighting’ has expanded over the years.
While the federal government does not require minimum training levels for fire departments, state and local governments increasingly are doing so. Additionally, the federal Assistance to Firefighters Grant program, which provides funding to fire departments to purchase equipment, apparatus, and training, requires grant recipients to meet or commit to meeting training levels based on NFPA 1001.
Because volunteer firefighters have to balance their fire service duties with career, family and other obligations, they mostly train in or near their home communities on nights and weekends. While all volunteer fire departments offer in-house training, some training and certification is delivered primarily by other agencies. The NVFC will work to ensure that convenient training and certification offerings are available to volunteer fire departments, including train-the-trainer and online or “distance” learning tools.
Most volunteer fire departments depend on a combination of government funding and private donations to budget for their operations. With limited resources at their disposal, some volunteer agencies struggle to pay for training outside of the department. There are federal, state, and county government resources available to train volunteer firefighters, and many national nongovernmental organizations provide additional training opportunities. To the extent that resource constraints are limiting the ability of volunteer firefighters to obtain training, the NVFC will work to help departments identify existing no- and low-cost training options.