The Town of Caledon Fire and Emergency Services has bolstered its fire department with the graduation of 24 new volunteer firefighters from the Town’s 2012 Firefighter Recruit Training Program and 23 from the current class of 2013. The recruits were welcomed to the Town by Members of Council, staff and Caledon Fire and Emergency Services at a ceremony on November 26, 2013.
“We’re pleased to welcome these Caledon Fire recruits,” said Fire Chief Terry Irwin. “The commitment level and expectations of volunteer firefighters is higher than ever, and we are very pleased with the dedication these men and women have shown.”
The past two recruit classes have worked hard to learn Emergency Medical Response, CPR and Defibrillation techniques, Ontario Firefighter Curriculum, fire suppression and firefighter survival skills. The training program for a volunteer firefighter consists of self-directed learning, 240 hours of classroom instruction and tactile skills development, followed by a series of final evaluations on the fire training ground. On the ground, evaluation included a live fire training session, where recruits were required to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in a scenario-based fire attack and rescue exercise to achieve their final performance objectives.
The unique communities and geographic make-up of Caledon require a skillset that encompass traditional urban responses, with the challenges of rural wild land interface. Caledon Fire and Emergency Services recently recertified in two of these challenges by maintaining the Superior Water Shuttle Tanker Accreditation and recertifying the High Angle Rescue team located in the Inglewood Fire Station. Other unique training includes Wild Land Fire courses from the Ministry of Natural Resources, and shore-based water rescue, due to the large amount of surface water in the Town.
For all firefighters accepted into Caledon Fire and Emergency Services, training continues on an ongoing basis. Annual requirements include CPR/Defibrillation recertification, EMR recertification, Pumper Operations, Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) firefighter rescue training, Vehicle Extrication and Flashover Recognition and Survival skills.
Caledon Fire and Emergency services runs a recruitment drive every spring. Interested members of the community can visit www.caledon.ca/fire for upcoming information sessions and videos on Caledon Fire.
