Aspiring police officers go through a unified training program at the State Police Academy. They all leave having learned the same skills. But, it doesn't work that way for firefighters. There's no centralized training, so the process is inconsistent and costly.
Indiana is searching for a fix and that task falls to legislators, who are working to design a program and come up with a way to pay for it.
How Current Firefighter Training Works
At a training facility in Terre Haute, firefighters are taking turns teaching a high rise operations class.
Once they complete the training, they'll be certified to teach other firefighters classes that prepare them for the unpredictable calls they respond to every day.
"You never know what kind of a situation you're going to get into," says Terre Haute Fire Chief Jeff Fisher. "And, you try to train for everything."
But, that can be difficult for smaller, volunteer departments that operate on bare bones budgets.
For them, the cost of training new recruits is often out of reach.
"I think the larger, paid departments here in Central Indiana do a great job of training," says Rep. Randy Frye (R-Greensburg), who authored the bill. "But, some of them just can't afford a whole training academy. Some of the smaller departments across the state might have one or two people they hire a year, where an IFD might have 40. And, so, to do a training academy for one or two people is very difficult."
Currently, firefighter training is done regionally.
Under the new law, those regional facilities would still be used, but instructors would teach from the same curriculum.
"Our goal is to have standardized training across the state, where a firefighter from Northern Indiana and a firefighter from Central Indiana would have the same training and testing as is done by the curriculum established by the state," Frye says.
Departments would also have the option of sending their firefighters to the academy for training and continuing education.
There, they could take more specialized courses.
"Individuals aspire and become fire chiefs or administrators and they may never have worked with a city budget – where do they learn that?" says Thomas Hanify, president of the Professional Firefighters Union of Indiana. "This academy will create an environment for them to come, a place for them to come and learn about government, human relations issues, ADA, all kind of things that our people in the fire service need."
But, there are still a lot of questions about what a centralized fire academy would look like – and how much it will cost.
Some funding for training comes from a fee on fireworks sales.
But, developing curriculum and building the academy won't be cheap.
"There may be some fees," Frye says. "We still haven't decided that, but we know that it can't be much, especially for those departments that are on such a limited income."
There's about 100 firefighters that die every year. That's a tremendous amount. If it was any other industry, they would shut us down.
-James Jason Kane, Terre Haute Fire Training Chief
Once more of the details are worked out, Frye says they may come back to the General Assembly and ask for additional funding.
Back in Terre Haute, the fire department's excited by the possibility of a centralized academy.
They say giving all departments access to top-notch training facilities will benefit the entire state.
"There's about 100 firefighters that die every year," Kane says. "That's a tremendous amount. If it was any other industry, they would shut us down. I think it's going to be good for the state to have that consistency we need. "
The bill is headed to Governor Mike Pence's desk for approval.
