A LOOK AT THE NATIONAL FIRE ACADEMY

A LOOK AT THE NATIONAL FIRE ACADEMY

TRAINING

Legislation creating a National Fire Academy passed in 1974, but it took a while before the system became fully operational. Now the students are saying that it was worth the wait.

The tranquil beauty of the trees and stately old buildings is not the most important aspect of the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Md., but it’s the first thing you see.

It is something you feel, too, because in the first minute the tone is set: such a peaceful place has to be conducive to learning. The slow rhythm of the bells in the clock tower adds more evidence that this is a campus. The grounds look deserted yet welcoming at the same time.

If the peacefulness is impressive, it is also just a bit deceptive — for behind those thick walls there is a beehive of focused activity.

When thinking about the National Fire Academy, the fire service seems to fall into two categories: 1. Those who never had any interest or lost it out of frustration at what the academy was (or rather was not) becoming three or four years ago, and 2. those who continued to believe in and work for a federal fire institution of excellence.

The first group saw the early days of unfulfilled promises and expectations and they tuned out. The second group saw its patience rewarded with a new academy site and new academy personnel with a confirmed dedication to the excellence that was so needed.

It’s time for the first group to take another look. So much is new and improved that is probably best to consider the days before 1980, when the Emmitsburg facility opened, as ancient history.

Joe Donovan is happy on the day of this visit in December. “We just received word that the academy has been levelfunded for another fiscal year (1984),” he explains. It is no small feat for a government agency, these days, just to stay in existence. Consider the threat to and cutbacks at the former parent of the academy, the United States Fire Administration.

Donovan entered the fire service at 16 with the Natick, Mass., Auxiliary Fire Department. He never would have imagined then becoming superintendent of the National Fire Academy, but he has, after serving as fire marshal at the Fort Bliss missile range and after almost 20 years with the Hopkinton, Mass., Fire Department. Most recently Donovan was chief of the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy.

Although level funding is something to cheer about in today’s economy, Donovan is not content to coast along at the current respectable quantity or quality of educational offerings. Both the resident and field program divisions are projecting increases in courses and student impact in the next year.

ACADEMY RESIDENT PROGRAM

Academy resident classes began in 1980, when 11 courses were offered a total of 104 times, attended by 2098 students. Projections for this year are for 22 courses offered a total of 188 times, attended by 4876 students.

Given the size of this country’s fire service, quantity is important, but the main interest Donovan has is increasing the quality of the programs. “Through systematic research, analysis of student critiques, and consultation with fire service organizations and leaders,” his recently distributed catalog states, “the academy continually revises, improves and expands its curricula to meet national priorities.”

Ed Bent, California state training director, would agree: “As far as I’m concerned, they’ve turned the thing around there. It wasn’t always so, but now we have good cooperation at the federal level. The instructors have been outstanding.”

Talk to the people who have participated recently as students and it is hard to find any dissatisfaction. This is especially noteworthy coming from straight-speaking fire fighters.

One thing that could cause grumbling – but it doesn’t — is that demand for slots in the courses is much higher than supply.

“Applications for academy courses are coming in,” Donovan said, “at a rate of about 360 each week.” Clearly, something exciting is going on. But if that rate holds for an entire year, applications will total over 18,000 for roughly 5000 slots. Some of the applicants will not meet stated prerequisites for the courses and will be declined. Nevertheless, the overall result will be long delays while waiting to attend most of the courses.

Already some of the 1983 courses are completely filled for the entire year (see box, next page).

Worth waiting for

So why don’t the delays cause more complaints? Perhaps the National Fire Academy is already gaining the relative stature of a Harvard University. Some things are worth waiting on, it seems.

Michael Waterworth applied for a hazardous materials course through his Fairfax County, Va., Fire Department, which was forming a haz-mat team. “This course took a year of waiting but I wasn’t impatient. I felt fortunate to get here, period,” he said one night on the campus.

Waterworth had earlier been a volunteer fire fighter and had an A.A. degree in criminal science before getting a B.A. in fire science engineering from the University of Maryland, so he felt he could comment on the instructors: “They’re certainly well qualified. They’re not like some Ph.D. speaking on a level over our heads.” That is not to say that the courses are not on an advanced level. It is not fully appreciated (or needed) by all students, but academy courses have been evaluated and accredited by the American Council on Education for college credit equivalencies. That means the credits earned at the academy may be transferred to a degree program already under way.

The typical academy course is two weeks long, although four are three weeks. The typical day starts at 8:30 and may go to 8:30 at night, with breaks for lunch and dinner, of course. Dormitory rooms have no televisions and usually only one telephone per floor. Rooms are clean but Spartan, with shared showers. Luxury is not the intent; learning is.

This is not to imply that the courses are as regimented as, say, a marine boot camp. Recreational facilities include tennis courts, a gymnasium and an indoor pool.

Opportunity for interaction

The campus also has a modern student center — with a beer and wine pub, even. The pub is the scene of some lighthearted times, admittedly, but it is also an informal place to gather and compare notes with personnel from all parts of the country. Not all learning comes from an instructor in a classroom, as all fire fighters already know. Many students at the academy rate the opportunity for interaction with others from similar but different backgrounds as beneficial as the course information itself. Academy policy supports this; students are chosen for a wide geographical representation.

JOE DONOVAN

The microcomputer class and lab at the National Fire Academy is the start of something big, FEMA Associate Director Fred Villella believes. “In the future, we don’t have to rely simply on a piece of paper that gets routed by mail and seven months later comes out as a statistic. “What we’re really shooting for is an on-line, real-time national fire information center tied in at the local level with low-cost microcomputers. The proper application of today’s technology is affordable.”

There are other opportunities to use existing technology, according to Villella. “Why can’t we have on-scene video transmission of what is going on (all over the fireground) by using the satellites we keep sending up every year? I think that capability is on the horizon for the fire service. What better way to do command and control than by seeing it on the screen? I don’t think we have to rely on somebody filming it and then we look at it a few days later. We’ve got to take on the responsibility and try to do it a better way.”

FRED VILLELLA

If learning takes place in classrooms and in informal discussions, it also takes place in the excellent laboratories at the academy. Students get valuable hands-on experience for understanding sprinkler and fire detection systems, audiovisual materials development, arson investigation and microcomputers. While all the labs are impressive, not many institutions anywhere have such a wide variety of equipment as the microcomputer lab. It is a timely subject, but the fire service has recognized that, obviously, because the new course, Use of Microcomputers for Fire Service Management, filled up for the year before it was formally advertised. That’s eight sessions filled by word of mouth.

It is impossible to give a comprehensive description of all that is going on at the National Fire Academy in the available space this month. Look for more coverage in the coming months.

For more information on courses, schedules and registration, contact the National Fire Academy, Office of Admissions, 16825 S. Seton Ave., Emmitsburg, Md. 21727, or call 301447-6771.

Other courses are filled, too. With so many wanting to get in, it is especially unfortunate when the academy is not even notified of an illness or other reason for last-minute cancellation. So Donovan wants to give the applicant’s fire department the responsibility for filling any unexpected opening. Then if a last-minute opening is not filled it goes against the department’s record.

(Continued on page 39)

That system is fine with Lieutenant Danforth Manchester from the Meriden, Conn., Fire Department, who explained, “I’ve been trying to get in for a year and a half. Even so, my being here now is only because of an unexpected opening when someone in another department had to cancel. I had about 30 minutes to make all my arrangements such as covering my shifts and transportation so I could accept. At least six others in my department are waiting for an opening.”

After all that wait, then all that rush, what did he think about the program? “From what I heard from the guys who had been here earlier,” he said, “the material then was not too deep and there was much free time. But it’s much different now, much more intense than I imagined. Some of the course is really tough for me, like the oral presentation we’ll all have to make justifying some apparatus specifications. I’m not complaining. I just got promoted six months ago, and all the officers will later be training their own personnel, so communications skills are important.”

Price is right

The price is right, too. Transportation costs are reimbursed, while lodging and instructional materials are provided free. But there is no free lunch: meals must be paid for, although they cost only $11 a day.

One question stands out: Why are applications not coming in at the rate of 360 a day, rather than the 360 per week Donovan mentioned. According to academy estimates there are just over a million fire fighters in 31,224 fire departments in the country. For one thing, the two and three-week courses may present a hardship for volunteer fire fighters who must consider the demands of other jobs. The mix at campus courses is about 10 percent volunteer and 85 percent paid, with other nonfire personnel making up 5 percent. Special weekend campus classes almost reverse those figures, to 70 percent volunteer and 30 percent paid.

ACADEMY FIELD PROGRAMS

As impressive as the academy resident program is, it can only accommodate (unless a more realistic level of funding is forthcoming) about 5000 students per year from a fire service community of 1,082,059, according to academy records.

“Academy Courses Are Filling Up”

For 1983, 21 different courses will be offered an average of six times each. They are described in a new catalog that has not been available for long, yet many of the courses are already full. If you have the catalog, here is a general update as of early December:

Incident Command—all classes filled for 1983.

Incident Command/Fire Arson Detection—one class open.

Advanced Incident Command—all filled through June.

Chemistry of Hazardous Materials—all filled.

Hazardous Materials Tactical Considerations—all filled.

Planning for Hazardous Materials Incident—all filled.

Educational Methodology—all open.

Course Developmentfour classes open.

Executive Development III—almost all filled.

Management of Emergency Medical Services—all open.

Fire Service Leadership/Communications—filled through June.

Fire Service Organizational Theory—last two classes still open.

Interpersonal Dynamics in Fire Service Organizations—all filled except last two.

Management of Public Fire Education—first two classes filled.

Use of Microcomputers for Fire Service Management—all classes filled.

Fire Prevention Specialist I—all filled.

Fire Prevention Specialist/Fire Arson Detection—open.

Fire Prevention Specialist II—last two half filled, the rest filled.

Fire Arson Investigation—filled except for last two.

Managing the Code Process— open.

Plans Review for Inspectors—most open.

With so many classes filled before the year began, Donovan was asked why he couldn’t increase the number of classes. “That’s where the money runs out,” he explained. “More specifically. we just do not have enough classrooms, beds and stipend money.”

It is clear that a different system is needed to complement the resident program. Fortunately, one exists in the National Fire Academy Field Programs Division. Deputy Superintendent j. Flaherty Casey is the man in charge, and few men are as intense about the rightness and value of their mission as Casey.

“What do we do?” Casey began, describing the philosophy of the outreach program. “We bring quality training programs to local fire departments and fire fighters who cannot get to the resident program. We made a commitment in the early days that we would work with and through state training systems to strengthen and supplement them The state and local training agencies have delivery systems that can literally reach into every fire station in the nation. The agencies vary on the basis of resources that are available, not on dedication, and that’s why our involvement is so necessary. We can help.

National educational laboratory

“What we get in return are the evaluation and suggestions of the people in the field who attend our 14 to 16-hour weekend courses. One of the important reasons we re out there is to field test courses. It’s like a national educational laboratory. Each course is given 40 to 50 times around the country over a year or 18 months. Each time a course is given it is improved a bit by what we learn from the adjunct instructor, the sponsoring state agency and the students.

“What we re aiming for is the best possible educational package, which ultimately will be handed off to the local level for local use in ever-wider coverage of the fire community.”

Eleven courses are under development now, and two were handed off in 1982 — Volunteer Fire Service Management and Fire/Arson Detection. The states have a tough decision to make about outreach courses: only four can be chosen in each year, according to the strongest need with a particular state.

Four courses are provided this way because of policy considerations, not money, Casey explained. “We’re not trying to replace state training, only to develop educational materials that meet state needs. For example, California for FY1983 chose four sessions of one course, Building Construction for Fire Suppression Forces. Oklahoma picked up the construction class plus Conducting Basic Fire Prevention Inspection, Emergency Medical Services Administration and hazardous Materials Incident Analysis. Massachusetts chose Fire Incident Management, Fire Prevention I, Fire Apparatus Purchase and Maintenance, and Public Fire Education.

Shared cost thing

“We deliver, the states sponsor,” Casey explained. “That means we provide the educational materials and a qualified instructor and we deliver the course that meets their needs, when and where they say they want it. The states do the advertising, recruiting of students and registration. They provide the facilities and extra equipment. So it’s a shared cost thing.”

If the students who have attended those courses are helping shape a final product (“We are a course factory,” Casey said), that is secondary to them. What they talk about when they return to their departments is what they learned. And as with the resident courses there is much to praise.

The comments of Jack Gardner, Oklahoma State fire instructor, are simple and representative: The field courses have been very well received.

Main event: Hand off

But the main event remains the hand off, when a completed package is released to state and local agencies. After that the academy field program personnel will no longer offer the course in the field. Their part of the partnership has been fulfilled.

Each hand off is accompanied by a series of “train-the-trainer” workshops that acquaint a very important group with the package. Experienced fire instructors from every state training system and from the largest fire departments are invited to attend, about 40 at a time and totaling 232 instructors, according to academy information. By participating in the workshops, the state and local representatives are making a commitment to incorporate the course into their program and to share it with others.

After these trainers become familiar with the course content and method of delivery, they go home with the complete package. They are asked to provide a plan covering the next 18 months’ use of the package. Changes for local conditions can still be made, proof that Casey’s program is committed to supplementing and strengthening local programs.

Staff of the Field Programs Division incluaes: seated, from left to right: Ed Kaplan, Wayne Powell, Jim Casey, Melody Rafter, John Turley and Doug Williams. Standing, Becky Ryan and Bruce Piringer. C. R. Lakin, another member of the staff, is not shown.

Train-the-trainer impact

Then the value and impact of the trainthe-trainer system begins to mount rapidly. Ideally, the 232 trainers each return home and train four other trainers from their own agency. Now the number of personnel trained with the handed-off package totals 928, not counting the hundreds or thousands who benefited from the course while it was under final development before hand off.

And the base of the pyramid continues to grow, because those 928 spread out through the states and cities to present the course at least three more times each. That is 2784 classes. With an average of just 20 fire personnel attending each class, the number of students has risen to 55,680. Per course!

Now in 1982 two courses were handed off, so the total should go to 111,360. If three courses are handed off in 1983, the total becomes 167,040 students for that year. And 1984’s four hand offs should reach 222,720.

The 1984 figure is so close to a “quarter million” that anyone would be tempted to use that phrase because it sounds so good, if not really accurate. But not Casey — he takes away from the 222,720 and other figures.

“We feel those figures are reasonable estimates. They are reachable. But to be even more sure that the figures reflect reality, we take a 25 percent reduction on every figure, and we can still be proud of what’s left,” Casey said.

That gives adjusted figures of 83,520 students in 1982, 125,280 this year, and 167,040 for 1984. Still very impressive.

To chart the progress in the field toward those figures, a simple reporting form was developed. Casey calls it “probably the simplest federal form ever designed.” If a train-the-trainer participant does not send in the card for classes taught, Casey is warned of a problem and can inquire afxxjt what else he can do to help make the program work.

“The future of the program,” Casey has said, “depends on the state systems’ utilization of the academy hand-off courses.”

Courses intended for hand off this year are Instructional Techniques for Company Officers, Fire Prevention I and Public Fire Education Planning.

“By 1984 we expect to have,” Casey said, “four field courses in the early development stages, eight to 10 courses undergoing field test, and four courses handed off via train-the-trainer, each year.”

Casey looked up from his plans and schedules and said, “This is so exciting, and it’s worth doing. We re working with people who have dedicated a major portion of their time, which is the most important thing they have, to serve others … and we re serving them.”

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