15 Meadows Valley Fire Fighters Pass Fire Fighter 1 Training, Pinning Ceremony Planned

Fifteen Meadows Valley Fire Fighters have completed training and testing to become nationally certified fire fighters. A pinning ceremony is planned for 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 16 at Meadows Valley School to celebrate this momentous accomplishment. All are invited to attend.

“This is the first time in Meadows Valley Fire’s history that firefighters have completed, tested and passed their IFSAC (International Fire Service Accreditation Congress) making them nationally certified firefighters,” said Fire Chief Doug Buys. These 15 volunteers took on 140 hours of mentally and physically strenuous training courses covering live fire, safety protocols, building construction, fire fighting techniques, and much more. Chief Buys described the Fire Fighter 1 (FF1) training as having four main parts which included book study, 60 hands on skills, hazmat, and live fire.

The 15 now certified FF1 fire fighters are volunteers who already offer their time to help when called, on top of their regular jobs and personal responsibilities. Buys shared that the FF1 certification is normally done through a fire academy program where students would enroll full time. He said, this class was accomplished “over nights and weekends, after students worked their full time job, made dinner, and put their kids to bed. Almost every waking moment students were not at their job, was spent working, learning, practicing for the FF1 class. It was a huge time commitment.”

Buys said, “The dedication of these individuals is uncanny.” Students took on the FF1 training including travel and testing plus regular monthly department training and then asked for more. Many of this same group of fire fighters are continuing their education now training for a Red Card to be certified in wildland firefighting. This can include classroom and field training as well as physical fitness testing. Buys said this is fairly new for the department, but makes them a “Full Service” fire department.

Those who achieved the FF1 certification include Captain Justin Peterson, Lieutenant Lucas Nicholson, Justin Aspiazu, Travis Bonfiglio, Amanda Branstetter, Johnny Brown, Katelyn Brumfield, Devin Buys, Nikki Buys, Becky Davis, Cody Day, Jericho Hendley, Engineer Chris Peterson, Tracy Peterson and LeAndra Smith.

The final exam included two 100 question written tests with 90 minute limits on FF1 and hazmat. Students also had to pass six skill stations - chosen randomly by the state from 60 options - and six hazmat skill situations.

Chief Buys noted that while having so many certified FF1 fire fighters is common for career full time fire departments, it is unheard of for volunteer departments. This is a huge benefit to Meadows Valley citizens to have not just a substantial crew of volunteers, but as Buys put it, a “professional volunteer department that is ready for any and all emergencies.” He also said, “this can help the fire insurance rating for the city and surrounding HOAs and POAs and can open us up to more grant funding, but at the end of the day, it is most beneficial to the patrons of Meadows Valley…So when someone is having the worst day of their lives, we can work together efficiently and effectively.” Buys added that moving forward the basic standard for Meadows Valley recruits will be FF1 and EMT-B, which puts the department at a ready state to move to being a full time, fully staffed career department whenever the need arises.

The pinning ceremony will include special guest speakers, a performance by Meadows Valley School students organized by music teacher Kimberly Dalrymple as well as receipt by each newly certified fire fighter of their IFSAC certificate and FF1 pin.