Last month the Haralson County Fire Department graduated its third class of certified firefighters from their recruit training program after it was revamped only three years ago.

According to Haralson County Fire Chief Brian Walker, the county fire services has always had a volunteer school; however, now graduates of the training course are not only certified to volunteer as firefighters, they are also certified to work for the fire department as employees.

“Now it is more of a recruit school rather than solely a volunteer school,” Walker said, “and Lt. Clay Culver has really done a good job getting this program off the ground.”

Walker says the fire department has recruited about 80 percent of the course’s graduates in the past three years.

“This program has really helped the department in two ways,” Walker said. “It increases our volunteer staff [...] and it helps us fill job openings quickly.”

Each person who graduates from the program is a fully certified firefighter, which makes them immediately eligible for employment. After six months of training, graduates receive NPQ1 (National Professional Qualifications 1) accreditation, certification as a first responder for Emergency Medical Service calls, and training in automobile extrication. The only thing the graduates are not trained for is special technical rescues, which include collapsed buildings, confined spaces and high- and low-angle rescues.

“Their basic training is for fire, medical and auto,” Walker said. “The other training is extra, and they can train for that later if they wish.”

Having recruits on hand who are ready for employment has been a great help to the fire department in recent years. Walker says the role of volunteer firefighters has changed over the years, and the number of available volunteers has decreased. He says the reorganized program is helping the fire department deal with these changes.

“In the past, volunteers used to carry everything with them, and when the call came out they would go,” he said. “A lot of volunteers could work full time and leave their jobs if they needed to. Now it’s a different story.”

Walker says the department now must assign volunteers to areas wherever they are needed rather than to a specific station. And these days the need is great due to the fact Walker must man 10 firefighting stations across the county, one of which is completely manned by volunteers, with only 34 firefighters and 17 active volunteers.

“To put it into perspective, that’s only one firefighter per day per station [...] and we answer 2,400 calls a year for a population of 30,000 over 252 square miles.”

To help make sure all stations are manned not only by firefighters but also by volunteers, the recruit training program requires 24 hours of volunteer service each month from their graduates. Volunteers can serve these hours in 4, 8 or 12 hour increments.

“Their service is a way for them to pay us back for their training, because it is very valuable,” Walker said. “They can take that training and get a job at any fire station. It’s also a way to give us extra manpower. It helps us put men on the scene immediately instead of in 5 or 15 minutes.”

Walker says while the department is always in need of volunteers and recruits, becoming a firefighter is not a task that should be undertaken lightly.

“On top of their volunteer hours for us,” Walker said, “graduates must maintain their certifications and accreditations, just like career firefighters, by completing 24 hours of in-house state training every year and physical agility tests as well as maintain their EMS training. This requires 240 hours a year to maintain state guidelines.”

However, according to Walker, all this training doesn’t just benefit trained graduates, firefighters and county residents in need of rescuing, training also helps county residents when the fire department receives a high insurance rating from the state’s Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John Oxendine.

“In May of 2001 we went from an insurance rating of a 9 to a 6, on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst,” Walker said. “That helps tax payers when it comes time to pay property taxes.”

For example, if a homeowner is paying taxes on a $100,000 home, the owner is now saving $500 more dollars a year on taxes owed for that property compared to eight years ago because the county now has a higher insurance rating.

“If we go up to a 3, they’ll save another $150 a year, which is something we are striving to do,” Walker said.

The county fire department’s insurance rating also helps determine how much money they receive in insurance premiums from Oxendine’s office to help counties provide fire protection. Walker says this also helps save taxpayers money.

“This year we received $834,000,” he said. “Our operating budget was $1,548,830. Well, that’s more than $800,000 the taxpayers didn’t have to pay to keep us running.”

Walker says the fire department has also been diligently working on reducing the county’s number of arsons each year, which will also help tax payers – and, so far, he says it’s working.

“Since 2007, we’ve had six guilty pleas and convictions for arson, and our fire calls are down,” Walker reported, “so the arson situation has gotten better.”

If anyone is interested in becoming a volunteer firefighter or joining the recruit training program, Walker says the fire department is always taking applications and is in great need of recruits. The next training program will begin in the spring. Interested parties should call the Haralson County Fire Department at 770-646-2036.