Fire Services Awarded FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grant
Volusia County Fire Services has received a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant for the purpose of enhancing the volunteer training program. Since volunteers are expected to train one evening per week, it is often difficult to incorporate both lecture and practical training in one evening. To increase the amount of practical training time, VCFS will be adding a distance-learning program for volunteers. The shift to distance learning will take a large portion of our existing lecture based training programs and convert them into a format that can easily be accessed on the Internet at a time that is convenient to VCFS volunteers.
The first priority for the new distance learning program is to address the new Florida State Fire College mandate involving the upgrading of all sixty to eighty hour volunteer firefighters to the one hundred sixty hour Firefighter One certification. This will involve developing learning modules for the International Fire Service Training Association’s Essentials of Firefighting. Numerous practice tests will also be added to the program so that the volunteers will have sufficient opportunities to prepare for the state written exam.
The distance learning modules will be combined with a new in-station drill schedule. The new schedule will be altered from its current format by the deletion of much of the lecture and single skill sessions. Scenario based practical sessions will be added that will be designed to utilize a number of skills during the same training session.
An additional component of the new program will be the conversion of the eight Emergency Medical Technician Refresher Modules into three recertifications consisting of First Responder, Emergency Medical Technician and Paramedic Programs. Converting the lecture material for the Internet will allow for additional practical EMS skills training during drill hours. This aspect of the grant will be accomplished with the cooperation of EVAC and Volusia County Emergency Medical Services personnel. The introduction to the Centrelearn platform that will be used for the volunteer distance-learning program can be accessed at www.emsed.com/pages/CLIntromovie.htm.
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Volusia County, Florida.
