By Maggie Behringer
Correspondent
With the Whitfield County Fire Department’s new status as one of Georgia’s five regional testing facilities, Northwest Georgia firefighters will be able to test and train closer to home, saving departments money and time.
The Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council has run a trial program for four months using Whitfield, Liberty, Hall, Moultrie and Screven counties as strategically located sites.
Chad Cobb, public safety training manager for the council, expects the program to be fully implemented at each site in the next two months. Firefighter certification examinations require appropriate structures and props to test practical skills, such as maneuvering in a restrictive passage or forcing entry.
Cobb said he chose Whitfield County’s department for “not only the facilities they have, but also the staffing.”
Over the past four years, the county department has taken steps to develop its own training facilities, which include a two-story burn building, driving course and roof ventilation and car fire simulators.
He said Whitfield’s department has worked to expand its range of certifications.
“Any time you can provide the actual testing, it’s always better,” said Danny Roach, the county’s training chief.
Roach is a firefighter standards and training council proctor/monitor and sits on the group’s committee to set testing standards. The county’s staff also includes 20 evaluators.
Before the regional test center program, every firefighter traveled to the state academy in Forsyth, an hour south of Atlanta, to take the basic state written test and complete certification exams.
“It costs a lot of money to send fighters throughout the state,” Roach said.
Departments paid for food, transportation and housing. Volunteers often couldn’t make the trip because of work schedules.
To date this year, the Whitfield department has conducted 12 to 15 evaluations involving 200 to 300 people at a time. Roach expects to run two or three each month.
He said he already has seen an improvement in staff and facilities. Of 140 people on staff, only the recruit class is not nationally certified.
“I think it’s going to generate some more enthusiasm for the department,” said Fire Chief Carl Collins. “It’s going to be a good thing for the whole region.”