Thoughts from Fire School
Fire School has just finished for another great year. It literally was just a couple of days ago we were in Watertown going full speed ahead with classes, hands on training, membership meetings, board meetings, exhibitors, auxiliary and who know what else.
There are so many moving parts to fire school, it’s hard to thank everyone without missing someone. Thank you to Lake Area Technical college for allowing us to use such a tremendous facility and the whole staff, the Watertown Fire Department for allowing their firefighters to give so much time, the State Fire Marshal’s office, the SD Firefighters Auxiliary for taking care of the vendors, the vendors themselves for showing all of us their great products and taking the time, the Pheasant Country FOOLS for hosting the water fights, and certainly my fellow SDFA Board members who put so much time and energy into making this best fire school for you, but the biggest thank you goes to all of you who took the time and attended classes. THANKS EVERYONE.
Attendance at fire school was up from past years. There were a little over 530 people at fire school this year, with nearly 400 in classes. That’s simply tremendous.
The elections were held for President with Charlie Kludt elected for a three-year term. Congratulations Charlie and thank you to Ron for being willing to step up and make the commitment to run.
The By-law and Constitution changes were adopted overwhelming. Thank you to the members for trusting your Board. The changes were not significant but needed to be done to clean up a few spots.
We had hoped to have one of the mobile live fire training trailers ready for instructors, but darn, a couple of the ventilation fans were not performing as they should, so the manufacturer said no go. However, about mid-July the second unit should be delivered, and the fans replaced. So, keep an eye on our webpage, Facebook or even simply calling a director to see if there is a time and place for the training. The Board spent time on the training program and use for these units.
The $5 Million PPE grant program was a huge topic of discussion for the Board. How is this going to work? What will be the criteria? How do we keep the application simple? What are the rules? What about reimbursement? Just how many SCBA’s can a department apply for? Is haz mat PPE eligible? Who’s going to review and approve your application? Don’t forget we must coordinate with the Fire Marshal’s office and the State Auditor. There are so many questions and what if’s. Again, keep watching we hope to have this program open in the near future.
Well, I better go and finish this month’s article. It’s already four days late and Jeff at the paper will be emailing me wondering where it is.
Again, remember to slow down, take your time, and arrive alive.
SDFA Secretary-Treasurer Denny Gorton