Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (MDFR) is composed of 2,486 sworn and civilian personnel who are responsible for providing fire and EMS services to approximately 2.7 million people who live within the 2,252 square miles that make up Miami-Dade County.
In 2016, in support of the Safety Stand Down initiative, MDFR delivered seven free classes over four days to 175 students from the department as well as other local departments. In 2017, the MDFR team put together a program that included 31 firefighter safety-and health-related classes that were delivered from June 20-23. Many of the instructors are from within MDFR, but some came from other departments to participate. All of the classes were free, open to anyone interested in attending, and many of them also provided Instructor/Inspector recertification CEUs through the State of Florida.
Topics presented included: Cancer in the Fire Service, Rapid Intervention Crew Operations, South Florida Firefighting/Balancing Safety with Aggression, Ammonia Incident Response Awareness, Fire Apparatus Safety Driving Techniques, Propane Emergency Training, ICS: The Incident Safety System, Raising the Heat on Heart Disease: Cardiac Risk and Firefighting, and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation/Everyone Goes Home program “Courage to Be Safe.”
To wrap up this year’s Safety Stand Down initiative, the MDFR team also delivered the IAFF Fire Ground Survival Training Program. Additional information can be found at MDFR-training.com.