FFnhusband

Yes, definitely there should be a single standard for interior firefighters across the board. We should also remember though, that those personnel who are not capable of performing interior duties are still of great value to the fire service. I belong (currently on military leave) to a rural department in northern NY where our support firefighters perform a multitude of tasks on the fireground that relieve those performing interior duties of the added stress of having to set up rehab, manpower/refit, water supply ops, operating apparatus, and so forth. I am currently the training officer with a semi-suburban/rural department in Alabama, where there is not a current state minimum training requirement for volunteers. I have found this to be very challenging as you never know what level of knowledge and experience others may truly have. Luckily I have a very supportive chief here who was open to the implementation of a department minimum standard based on the NYS and NFPA FF1 courses. Within this department this has greatly helped our members, but without having a state minimum, you still never know what you may get from mutual aid.