Barksdale hosts Fire Officer III class
Barksdale Air Force Base, La, --
The Barksdale Fire Department hosted instructors from Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, Fire Academy along with 12 Department of Defense firefighters to take part in a 10-day course June 2.
Two instructors from the Goodfellow Fire Academy take to the road to teach the course where there is a demand for it.
"We will go anywhere we are needed," said retired Master. Sgt. Timothy Sirmans, Fire Officer III instructor. "There is a high demand for this course and by traveling to different bases we are saving the host base money. The unique thing about this course is that everything is paid for with Goodfellow's funds. They ship our material and pay for us to come to different bases and instruct. We saved Barksdale around $18,000 dollars by coming here to teach since eight Barksdale firefighters are in this class."
The course consisted of lecture, paperwork, group discussion, group projects, presentations and briefings from guest speakers.
Slots for students to attend are technical sergeants and above because of the high need for these ranks for experience to step into a mid-level management position.
In the fire department, mid-level management positions consist of assistant chief of operations, where firefighters manage a shift of 14-40 individuals depending on the size of the base, or prevention, training or station captain.
There were 20 students accepted to take part in the Fire Officer III course, which is designed to teach mid-level management skills and how to handle what goes on behind the scenes of a major incident.
"This class is important because it teaches us how to analyze our community as well as our own fire department so that we can constantly strive for improvement," said Tech. Sgt. Ernest Chapko, 2d Civil Engineer Squadron firefighter. "Our goal as a fire department is to provide the best possible customer service to the community while supporting the mission. We often come in contact with the public on what might be their worst day, so it's important for us to be on top of our game."
The instructors covered seven lessons includeding orientation, trends, human resource management, resource allocation, budgets, safety and emergency service delivery.
"The hardest aspect of the course was creating a standard of coverage which is a lengthy document," said Sergeant Chapko. "DoD regulations actually require that we be able to provide specific services such as structural firefighting, emergency medical services, Hazmat, in a specified amount of time.
"The purpose of the SOC is to define and document risk areas in the community, the department's response capability or coverage, the potential levels of service of coverage, and the resource requirements to provide this coverage," he continued. "The SOC also provides a record of the goals and objectives to meet the requirements of the SOC and the expectations of Barksdale's community. The intent of the SOC is to provide a logical, systematic analysis of the basic services the fire department provides the community based on the specific level of available resources."
The Fire Officer III instructors provide information on entry-level management operations.
"The majority of the students in attendance are in a station captain position," said Tech. Sgt. Robert Laning, Fire Officer III instructor. "With the training and information they will receive here, they will be able to become certified from this course and be able to advance in their career and become an assistant chief of operations."
To prepare the firefighters for the needed mid-level management skills of an assistant chief of operations, a scenario was given for the 20 individuals to complete.
The scenario given to these students is they must prepare for an influx of 11,000 individuals to Norma Brown Air Force Base, Texas, due to terrorist threats made against the base and the surrounding community of San Andres. The setting goes into further detail stating that a link had been discovered between drug trade and terrorist organization, smuggling arms and infiltrate America's southern border.
The students had to complete a 20 to 30 page document of how the fire department will handle this influx of personnel and aircraft to be prepared to brief the emergency operation center as well as the base commander.
"The scenarios prepare the students for a major catastrophe where they will have to figure out how to handle a major influx of personnel to base," said Mr. Sirmans. "We teach them how to handle that from a fire department perspective along with emergency services delivery, dealing with multi-agencies, long operations. We give them scenarios and they have to brief oncoming personnel on status of incident."
Once the students were graded on the material that was taught and earned a passing grade, they were able to become certified in Fire Officer III.
"This course basically built on everything I knew about the Fire Department," said Sergeant Chapko. "Things like community awareness programs, information management and incident management--it kind of brought all of these aspects together and made us look at them form a leadership perspective."
With the completion of this course, 20 firefighters will now be able to provide the best possible service to their community so that the loss of life and property is minimized.
Two instructors from the Goodfellow Fire Academy take to the road to teach the course where there is a demand for it.
"We will go anywhere we are needed," said retired Master. Sgt. Timothy Sirmans, Fire Officer III instructor. "There is a high demand for this course and by traveling to different bases we are saving the host base money. The unique thing about this course is that everything is paid for with Goodfellow's funds. They ship our material and pay for us to come to different bases and instruct. We saved Barksdale around $18,000 dollars by coming here to teach since eight Barksdale firefighters are in this class."
The course consisted of lecture, paperwork, group discussion, group projects, presentations and briefings from guest speakers.
Slots for students to attend are technical sergeants and above because of the high need for these ranks for experience to step into a mid-level management position.
In the fire department, mid-level management positions consist of assistant chief of operations, where firefighters manage a shift of 14-40 individuals depending on the size of the base, or prevention, training or station captain.
There were 20 students accepted to take part in the Fire Officer III course, which is designed to teach mid-level management skills and how to handle what goes on behind the scenes of a major incident.
"This class is important because it teaches us how to analyze our community as well as our own fire department so that we can constantly strive for improvement," said Tech. Sgt. Ernest Chapko, 2d Civil Engineer Squadron firefighter. "Our goal as a fire department is to provide the best possible customer service to the community while supporting the mission. We often come in contact with the public on what might be their worst day, so it's important for us to be on top of our game."
The instructors covered seven lessons includeding orientation, trends, human resource management, resource allocation, budgets, safety and emergency service delivery.
"The hardest aspect of the course was creating a standard of coverage which is a lengthy document," said Sergeant Chapko. "DoD regulations actually require that we be able to provide specific services such as structural firefighting, emergency medical services, Hazmat, in a specified amount of time.
"The purpose of the SOC is to define and document risk areas in the community, the department's response capability or coverage, the potential levels of service of coverage, and the resource requirements to provide this coverage," he continued. "The SOC also provides a record of the goals and objectives to meet the requirements of the SOC and the expectations of Barksdale's community. The intent of the SOC is to provide a logical, systematic analysis of the basic services the fire department provides the community based on the specific level of available resources."
The Fire Officer III instructors provide information on entry-level management operations.
"The majority of the students in attendance are in a station captain position," said Tech. Sgt. Robert Laning, Fire Officer III instructor. "With the training and information they will receive here, they will be able to become certified from this course and be able to advance in their career and become an assistant chief of operations."
To prepare the firefighters for the needed mid-level management skills of an assistant chief of operations, a scenario was given for the 20 individuals to complete.
The scenario given to these students is they must prepare for an influx of 11,000 individuals to Norma Brown Air Force Base, Texas, due to terrorist threats made against the base and the surrounding community of San Andres. The setting goes into further detail stating that a link had been discovered between drug trade and terrorist organization, smuggling arms and infiltrate America's southern border.
The students had to complete a 20 to 30 page document of how the fire department will handle this influx of personnel and aircraft to be prepared to brief the emergency operation center as well as the base commander.
"The scenarios prepare the students for a major catastrophe where they will have to figure out how to handle a major influx of personnel to base," said Mr. Sirmans. "We teach them how to handle that from a fire department perspective along with emergency services delivery, dealing with multi-agencies, long operations. We give them scenarios and they have to brief oncoming personnel on status of incident."
Once the students were graded on the material that was taught and earned a passing grade, they were able to become certified in Fire Officer III.
"This course basically built on everything I knew about the Fire Department," said Sergeant Chapko. "Things like community awareness programs, information management and incident management--it kind of brought all of these aspects together and made us look at them form a leadership perspective."
With the completion of this course, 20 firefighters will now be able to provide the best possible service to their community so that the loss of life and property is minimized.
