Don’t Box Yourself In
“No more taxes” is a great political mantra, but where else will the money for fire departments come from? In this struggling economy, volunteer and combination departments will need creative solutions beyond fund-raising efforts or FIRE Grants for equipment and maintenance costs.
During the recent Station Style Design Award judging, the panel had a lively discussion over a couple of training centers that were submitted in the Shared Facilities category. Many fire departments have found that sharing their facilities, particularly training centers, results in more funding and ultimately yields more bang for the buck.
One such facility is The Woodlands (Texas) Emergency Training Center, which offers a comprehensive, multi-disciplined and coordinated approach to training for all-risk hazards. “We cater to The Woodlands, but also our region,” said Fire Chief Alan Benson. “We have coordinated emergency management and also work with law enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Lone Star College.”
Center managers also found a unique funding opportunity. The training center recently hosted managers and dealers from Sperian, a manufacturer of eye protection, SCBA and other protective gear for emergency responders, for one day of live-fire training. The company paid to use the facility.
“We have a bunch of people [who] are not firefighters,” said Bill Sokol, vice president of strategic marketing for the Sperian Respiratory Group. “Top management people, members of our executive committees, vice presidents — people who support the job at various levels.”
The goal of the hands-on training was to better understand the fire service profession. Sokol said Sperian‘s brand philosophy is to design around the person first and then to the standard. “It‘s hard to understand what [firefighting is] like, so it‘s a unique way to better understand how our gear and our customers work together,” he said.
The Woodlands training personnel set-up work stations for the Sperian teams. Sokol participated in bedroom, kitchen and car fire simulations. The training center also offered a hazmat station and a 5-story rappelling rig.
Sokol said the experience was valuable from a team-building and understanding perspective, and Sperian plans to visit the facility again. “This experience validates the input of what firefighters were telling me” Sokol said. “I now understand why knobs and snaps need to be big when you are wearing 50 pounds of gear and fire is blowing over your head.”
I‘m not sure this is an area that departments could consider for a revenue source, but it does offer other non-monetary benefits — better understanding between emergency responders and product development.
The future demands beyond thinking outside the box. There are no more boxes, no lines to color inside. There’s only finding new resources for mutual benefit.
Related Topics: Station Design, Management & Administration, Training, Leadership
October 12th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
The Woodlands Texas Emergency Traing Centre sounds like a well thought out and conceived project.
As the times get even tighter, creative solutions must be found to accomodate the various training requirements of today’s fire service. By working together with other departments in cost sharing agreements, or sharing the facilities you have with departments that may lack necessary funding to build their own facility, more firefighters will get to train in a realistic environment.
As we all know, a trained firefighter is able to perform better and safe than a firefighter who has little or no training at all.
Stay safe !!
Eric Miller - Captain
Parksville Fire Department
Parksville, B.C. Canada
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