Northern firefighters to meet southern standards
Ian Elliot
Northern News Services
INUVIK (May 29/98) - Northern firefighters are going to be given a chance to take the same training as those in southern cities in the next few years.
The territorial Fire Chiefs Association is moving towards adopting a gruelling set of training standards for firefighters in an attempt to reduce the amount of property lost to fire in the North -- more than $23 million in the last two years.
Many community firefighters are now offered a very practical training course that equips them to safely fight structure and airport fires. The course the chiefs are looking at, which firefighters could choose whether or not to take, is the same one taken by firefighters across North America. After completing it, a process that can take as long as four years, their credentials will be recognized anywhere.
"Firefighting is a ticket, just like a trades ticket," said assistant fire marshal Tim Pawluk.
"At the end of the course, they will be a basic firefighter, which means they are qualified at a full professional level. They could work at any fire department."
The course is administered by the Oklahoma State University, representatives of which would oversee the testing firefighters would have to take on topics such as breathing apparatus and ropes and hitches. Much of the training would take place at the Regional Fire Training Centre in Inuvik.
At the end if the course, communities would have more skilled and confident firefighters, he said.
"We are very much in favor of it," said Inuvik fire chief Al German, who said it would further establish Inuvik's place as the fire-training headquarters for the Western Arctic and allow town firefighters to upgrade their skills.
In response to the recent spate of fires -- several of which have taken place in Delta, including the Fort McPherson school and co-op fires -- the government promised better equipment to community fire departments and to continue the NWT Juvenile Fire Setter Intervention Program, which works with schoolchildren to try and stop them setting fires.
