We Have Come A Long Way, Baby!
Several weeks ago I received my copy of the Winter Fire School brochure in the mail from the University of Missouri Extension Fire and Rescue Training Institute. As most of the readers of this newsletter know, I have more than a passing interest in the Institutes’ activities, and training in general for the fire service. I spent several years of my life in a station wagon or a pickup truck and in some cases a semi-tractor crisscrossing this state as an instructor and later the director of the finest state training program in the nation; your MU Fire and Rescue Training Institute!
When I had a chance to review the program for the 35th Winter Fire School I was blown completely away by the content and professional way it was put together. I still keep close track of training programs across not only our country in various states, but our neighbors to the North as well. I defy anyone to show me a more comprehensive or more well organized offering of training any place by any State or Provincial training agency.
After receiving the program, I was motivated to dig around in my garage in the multitude of boxes of goodies I have saved to donate to the FFAM museum for a copy of the program for the very First Annual Winter Fire School, conducted on the UMC campus February 26, 27 and 28, of 1982. As usual, there is a story behind that program and the way it came about. So as Paul Harvey was famous for saying on the radio, now you will know “the rest of the story”.
First, we need to give credit where credit is due! I was not real high on the concept of a winter fire school for fear it wound detracts from the long standing Annual Fire School held in the summer. There was the argument put forth that since Missouri was an agricultural state, many individuals in smaller communities could not afford the time to come to Columbia for fire school. As the printed program reflects, the Missouri Association of Fire Department Instructors and its President, Ron Paubel, were the real driving force behind the first winter fire school. Ron was also part of our small staff that single handily developed the first teaching package for the Firefighter I certification for the State and a dedicated instructor for his entire career! The first two pages show the general information about the school.
There were seven workshops presented and students could pick three of the seven to attend. The overall topic that was selected was “Tactics” and each workshop dealt with tactics for a type of emergency. The registration fee was twenty bucks and all the instructors were State of Missouri residents except for my friend Gene Carlson, who at the time was the chief editor of IFSTA training manuals at Oklahoma State University.
We also made lodging arrangements with Stephens College for double occupancy rooms in one of their vacant dorms, at least I hope it was vacant since at the time it was an all female student school, all for the huge cost of eight bucks per night.
The true success of the first winter fire school is a tribute to the instructors who are listed in the program. They were part of a larger group of that made up the newly formed Missouri Association of Fire Department Instructors.
That organization was also a result of the University of Missouri Fire Trainings’ efforts to improve training throughout the State. At least three 60-hour instructor certification programs had been taught in the state and almost all of the certified instructors acted as “associate instructors” for MU Fire Training. Chief Rich Lehman was the driving force for us in the instructor development program and I will always be grateful to him for his dedication.
So, as time marches on an we now have a twenty page program of offerings taught by a small army of exceptional instructors from all over the country. We are thankful for this handful of awesome dudes who thought it might be fun to do a winter fire school and it was! As it continues to be!
FFAM
