Monday October 22nd after class I reported to the Kahului Fire Station.

Classroom

I wanted to know about what fire fighters need to know academically and the secretary, Kim, showed me their thick text book and I was able to copy the table of contents.

It's 20 chapters long and covers pretty much everything.. equipment, knot tying, driving, EMR etc...

The fire fighters go through 26 weeks of training and that includes studying.
The first handful of weeks are focused on EMR and then it moved into FADOP which is driving the trucks.
They need to obtain a Commercial Drivers License to drive the trucks.
Then the chapters proceed with other important information.

Guys who work at the airport are hired by the State and guys who become firefighters are hired by the county.

Fire fighters have two different types of gear: Structure gear and wild land gear.
Structure gear is for commercial building fires and wild land gear is for wild fires.

The Kahului Fire Department is #10 and how the departments are numbered are by when they were built. This department was the tenth to be built on the island.
There is no other like it because there are four companies:
Engine company- engines taken to fight fires
Hazmat Company- for hazardous situations (only one in the county)
Tank Company- truck filled with water for wild fires
Rescue Company- used for ocean and mountain rescue (only one in the county)

We took a trip to the Prevention's building to talk to one of the guys that work there and I will be shadowing him for about a day learning about fire codes and fire safety.
Amos and I also dropped off some equipment that was broken and I was able to meet the woman that purchases their equipment.
I will be receiving a PPE request form so I know what kind of equipment is needed for their jobs.

I also want to know what kind of work out routines the guys training to be fire fighters go through to get into shape.

Tomorrow is the graduation for the guys who have been training for the past 26 weeks and I will be attending as well as helping Kim out.

Next week Tuesday I am planning on coming to the fire department before my class because October is fire safety awareness month and different schools will be going to different fire departments to learn about fire safety from the fire fighters. I want to take a video of this presentation and talk to the teachers of the school to set up a time in the spring when I can come for a visit and do a follow up.