Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Feb 27/02) - Firefighters from across Nunavut gathered in Rankin Inlet this past week.

The firefighters took part in the annual general meeting of the Nunavut Fire Officer's Association, and received general firefighter and critical incident stress management training.

Nunavut fire marshal Gerald Pickett said the firefighting training was an extensive program presented by Nunavut's new training officer, Donald Corbett.

"He's (Corbett) spent the better part of the past two months developing a program for this particular training course," said Pickett.

"It touches on just about every essential aspect of firefighting.

"This was an opportunity to introduce his program and what he will be doing in various communities."

The program touches on a wide variety of topics, including fire behaviour, building search and victim removal, water fire streams and live portable extinguisher training among many others.

Corbett will be travelling to numerous Nunavut communities to present modified versions of the program to meet the needs of individual hamlets.

Pickett said the training program will be a valuable tool in helping him meet his top two objectives for Nunavut firefighters.

The fire marshal's first goal is to change the role of community fire protection from its current passive level to a more aggressive role.

"For that to happen, there has to be incentives and that's what I'm trying to do with the awards we presented this week -- the Most Improved Volunteer Fire Department of the Year award (Kugaaruk) and Volunteer Firefighter of the Year award (Vince Ningark)."

Pickett's other goal is to establish a minimum standard of training for firefighters across Nunavut, regardless of the community in which they reside.

"I want all our firefighters to have the same level of competence, which will allow them to provide a better fire protection service to their community.

"Our firefighters have to have at least the basic requirements for operating an effective fire department."