Master Plan, CRA/SOC
Town of Southington, CT
Opportunity #4: Training and Professional Development Programs Recommendation 4.1: ESCI encourages the integration of outside instructors into the Southington Fire Department Training Program. The use of instructors from outside of Southington is critical to the future success of the Southington Fire Department Training Program as it diversifies the perspectives of the firefighters and brings new ideas into the organization. Recommendation 4.2: Establish a formal feedback/input mechanism to receive necessary end-user feedback about the training program. ESCI recommends that the Southington Fire Department evaluate the use of a survey tool to collect performance feedback from firefighters about the training program. Examples of online survey tools that could be used for this purpose include SurveyMonkey, SurveyLegend, and Typeform. Gathering information directly from firefighters on an annual basis will allow department leadership to keep a focus on those aspects of the training program that firefighters indicate as being of high value. This type of feedback also enables leadership to key in on specific performance issues that may exist. The annual survey would be a good opportunity to encourage firefighters to share new ideas or other suggestions they may have about the Southington Fire Department Training Program. Recommendation 4.3: Make it a priority to incorporate annual live fire training into its training program. OSHA CFR 1910.156 requires “Training and education commensurate with duties and functions members are expected to perform, provided before they perform fire emergency activities.” It further requires “Training and education frequently enough to assure each member is able to perform assigned duties and functions satisfactorily and in a safe manner.” ESCI was told repeatedly by Southington Firefighters that it has been multiple years since they had attended a live burn training evolution. While it is understood that the skills associated with performing fire suppression activities can be refreshed without live fire, ESCI suggests that the suppression of live fire is one of the most high-risk and low-frequency activities in which Southington Firefighters engage. ESCI’s recommends that the Southington Fire Department make it a priority to incorporate annual live fire training into its training program. Recommendation 4.4: Reclassify some of the types of training that are conducted in the Southington Fire Department to better-align with ISO which will ideally improve the department’s chances of receiving full training credit during their next ISO evaluation. ESCI correlated the requirements of the Southington Fire Department Training Program with the ISO requirements. It is understood that there is some flexibility within some of the Southington Training Program topics to account for ISO Training. The Southington Fire Department currently uses the rating bureau section of FireHouse to track this training; when the transition to ESO takes place, every effort should be made to correlate the training program topics to ISO’s requirements. ESCI offers the following suggestions for reclassifying some of the types of training that are conducted in the Southington Fire
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