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Regional workshops for fire department heads

Fire chiefs, municipal administrators encouraged to attend

A series of regional workshops is offering administrative training throughout the province over the next two years to better support community fire departments.

The workshops will provide key skills and knowledge to local government administrators and chief fire officers, and kicked off with a three-day pilot in Prince George in November.

100 Mile House Fire-Rescue chief Darrell Blades led one of the training sessions at the first workshop.

He recommends all local fire chiefs who did not make it to the pilot to attend one of the upcoming workshops.

"It was a very good workshop for a volunteer-based department."

Interlakes Volunteer Fire Department chief Doug Townsend was one of the local fire chiefs and administrators who attended the pilot workshop.

"It was extremely worthwhile to let the administrators and the people who control budgets to get more of an idea of what training is required, and the costs for this training and for equipment...."

For small departments, these expenditures are significant, he says, adding members can't be compensated for missed wages, and sufficient numbers of personnel must remain behind to man the hall.

Although much of the training is done in-house by a local member who travels for instructional education, Townsend notes this is not always the case.

"To get the very latest of training, we have to send people away."

Townsend says he heard how the administrators can help, such as by being more descriptive in public communications on where local government funding goes.

The workshop also fostered more understanding for some of the fire chiefs, he adds.

"I guess there is a certain level of frustration that most of the chiefs feel, regarding being unable to take advantage of some of this stuff because of financial restrictions.

"You have to be able to come back to your people with the reasons they are and the reasons they are not getting some of the training."

Cariboo Regional District CAO Janis Bell attended the initial workshop, and says she was also pleased with what she heard.

"It is encouraging that these forums will include perspectives from both local government chief administrative officers and those of the fire chiefs from across the province."

While the $50,000 in workshop funding comes from the province's Emergency Management BC, she notes the workshops came about as a joint project of several groups.

"I am hopeful the collaboration between the Local Government Management Association of British Columbia, Office of the Fire Commissioner and Fire Chiefs' Association of British Columbia will culminate in a training model, which will be beneficial for all types of fire departments."

More information and the schedule for the next two workshops are online at www.lgma.ca/EN/main/programs/programs/fire-service-administration.html.

Firefighter recruitment

Members of 100 Mile House and area fire departments will be bringing some equipment to the Save-On-Foods parking lot this Saturday (March 14) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Area fire departments are in the midst of a joint recruitment campaign, and every one of them needs new volunteers.

This event will provide folks, who have questions about what is involved in joining the volunteer fire department in their communities, an opportunity to talk to their local firefighters and get those questions answered.