Lake City, AR – JonesboroRightNow.com – The Lake City Fire Department (LCFD) is spearheading a major push for public safety in Craighead County, launching a new program that aims to get local first responders up to speed.

The Craighead County Firefighter 1 program began Feb. 7, with more than 30 students from departments across the region attending. Seven of those students are members of the LCFD itself.

According to Fire Chief Hunter Timms, the energy on day one was high, with the class wasting no time by covering the first three chapters of the Firefighters’ Essential Manual.

“Being limited on time, and being a group of volunteers, you know, like trying to take advantage of everybody’s time as effectively as we could. We dove straight off into it,” he said.

Making the Commitment

The “Firefighter 1” designation is the foundational certification for modern firefighting. Timms compared it to a cop attending a police academy. The curriculum covers several topics, including fire dynamics, throwing ladders, pulling fire hoses, and attacking fires.

Students currently enrolled will have to undergo over 186 hours of training to graduate. The program is set to run from February through the end of September.

“The class is designed to where we meet the first and second Saturday of each month to cover the chapters,” Timms explained. “And we’ll have a training day that covers the hands-on portions in between there.”

Students will also travel to Camden every third week for testing, presenting a significant sacrifice for those who serve as volunteers while balancing full-time jobs. Timms calls volunteer firefighting “a family sport.”

“The entire family has to make a decision to say, ‘Hey, I’m willing to let my significant other leave at all random hours of the day and night.’ If our families aren’t supporting this, it makes it so much more difficult.”

Powered by Volunteers

The program’s success relies heavily on experienced instructors who donate their time to train the next generation of firefighters.

Timms, who is serving as the lead instructor, emphasized that he “drew the short straw” on paper but could not run the program without help. He specifically credited fellow instructors like Bay assistant fire chief Carter Keith and others for volunteering their weekends to help.

“It really makes us volunteer firefighters feel valued, that somebody’s willing to invest some time into me and to allow me to get some information and become a better fireman for the community,” he said.

The Program’s Benefits

The program is a collaborative effort designed to strengthen the entirety of Craighead County’s emergency response capabilities. Timms noted that students from nearly every county attended Saturday’s class, including students from Bay, Bono, Caraway, Monette, and Valley View.

By training together, firefighters from different departments learn to communicate and operate as one unit, an advantage when larger emergencies require extra support.

“Typically, the way that most fire departments in the entire United States operate is we train as a department. We hardly ever train as a group of departments,” Timm said. “What is great about a program like this is that whenever we do have a big fire, and we need help, these people are already familiar with each other. It just makes us mesh a lot better together.”

Beyond improved teamwork, Timms emphasized that a graduating class of over 30 firefighters will have tangible benefits for residents.

“The more trained professionals that you have inside your city, the ISO (Insurance Services Office) considers that to be a pro,” he said. “The way the ISO feels is that you’re faster to affect a certain situation.

Upon completion, graduates will receive an International Fire Service Accreditation Congress (IFSAC) seal, an internationally recognized certification.

As for the future, Timms said he would be willing to go further with a Firefighter 2 program if there are enough students who wish to continue.

“If we maintain enough students throughout this, and everybody’s willing to continue on to the next Firefighter 2 class? Absolutely. I’ll donate more of my time,” Timms said. “The level of knowledge you start to get, the higher you go, is just so beneficial to these organizations and their communities.”