VIDEO: The Training Process That Volunteer Firefighters Go Through

OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)-Becoming a volunteer fire fighter is something that doesn’t just happen overnight.

We see them spraying water on burning buildings and riding in their big red trucks, but what we don’t see is the training they have to go through before they even put on the uniform.

“A lot of people associate fire departments with inside the house, but we do so much more now,” said Austin Check, training officer for the Oktibbeha County Fire Departments. “You’re looking at things like technical rescue with ropes, it could be things like working with cars, flooded areas things of that nature.”

Check tells WCBI that volunteer firefighters receive the same type of training as firefighters who are in career departments.

They both receive their training from the Mississippi Fire Academy, the only difference is the format and the way the training is taught.

“In a career department, usually it’s a six week program, Monday through Thursday,” he explained. “Someone goes down there we they’ll spend four days at the fire academy and come back. In the volunteer setting, it’s very difficult to ask someone to take off work or from their lives for six weeks to go to the academy, so what we do is we bring that training in house.”

Check has been a training officer for five years now, and describes the training process that volunteer firefighters have to go through.

“Someone coming in the door, day one, we’ll send them to what’s called firefighter one,” he said. “We teach those courses here in Oktibbeha County. They take a written test here in Oktibbeha County, and once those tests are complete will send them to Jackson for skills testing at the state fire academy.”

They also have to go through medical training at a community college where they have to put in countless hours.

“Hazardous materials, another 50 to 60 hours,” the training officer described. “Automobile extrication, just starting off, that’s 12 hours plus the additional that goes in there, not to mention the challenges that comes with the rural firefighting. We don’t have a fire hydrant every 500 feet, so we have to teach people how to move water and make the most of that water and basically not to waste a drop whatsoever, so the training is continuous, there’s always something going on.”

Each department in Oktibbeha county has an in-service training for the fire fighters at least once a month.

The training procedures can be described as tedious and continuous, but Check said being able to be a service to the community makes the end result well worth it.