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Sedalia, Mo., Fire Department Training Program Proving Successful

'There is a ton that goes into the 1 and 2 program, being the first year last year we definitely learned a lot.'

Firefighter (3)4
(TNS) - In the program’s second year, 12 students graduated March 14 from the Sedalia Fire Department’s Firefighter 1 and 2 class.

Compared to last year’s inaugural class of 14 graduates, with both classes starting with around 16, interest seems to be continuing for the local training program. Lead Instructor Daniel Shaw said while the program has to follow state standards, the instructors have learned from each year to improve for future classes.

“Last year I made it a point at graduation to make this comment, I really believe our instructors learn just as much from the students as they did from us,” Shaw said. “There is a ton that goes into the 1 and 2 program, being the first year last year we definitely learned a lot.”

The six-month course was one of several ways the City of Sedalia is working to improve recruitment and retention for public safety departments, including the Public Safety Pay Plan approved by the Sedalia City Council last year.

The other piece was recruiting local employees. According to Shaw, SFD loses two firefighters a year on average, most of them returning “home” to larger departments such as Columbia or Lee’s Summit.

“We started investigating that, and we realized the people we were hiring were from those metro areas, and we determined we were hiring those people because they were the only ones qualified because of the certifications we require. As we dug a little deeper, those were the areas offering 1 and 2 certification,” Shaw said.

Shaw continued by saying most eligible firefighters took classes in those larger metro areas. SFD would hire them, the firefighter would get several years of experience, and then they’d leave when a department closer to home was hiring.

“With that in mind, the only way to truly solve that problem was to hire local people, and we can’t hire if we can’t train local people,” he said. “The whole mindset was to offer an affordable course that met the needs of the people of our community who had an interest, and then hire local as well.”

It seems to be working — SFD hired two of its former students over the past year.

Once students complete Firefighter 1 and 2, they still have to complete the state exams. Shaw said the majority of SFD’s students take the exam. During a recent SFD hiring cycle, four students made it through the process to the interview stage. Of those four, two were hired. Shaw said one was hired about seven months ago, with the other starting just last week.

Shaw noted that SFD hosting the course also benefits its employees by having additional training equipment. Students pay $1,200 in tuition, which all goes back into the program to prevent using taxpayer dollars.

Some of that tuition goes toward purchasing training equipment for the class, which is then used year-round by SFD employees. In the last two years, the department has been able to add equipment for live fire training, forcible entry training and vertical ventilation.

“It’s benefiting the students and the department as a whole,” Shaw added.

Shaw said SFD plans to continue offering the course each year as long as they have interest, and he has already received a few emails from potential students interested in the course starting this fall.

For more information about SFD’s Firefighter 1 and 2 class, contact Shaw at [email protected]

Nicole Cooke can be reached at 660-530-0138 or on Twitter @NicoleRCooke.


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