Well, it has been some time since I was in the blogo-sphere. Much has happened in my life as well as in the fire service. I won't rehash the past as I am sure people have stayed abreast. I received some information today about the adoption of NFPA standards by the Ontario Fire Service.
It seems that CFOs, CAOs, Chiefs, Deputies and Line Personnel may be overly worried about the impending adoption. The Ontario Firefighter Curriculum was based on NFPA when it was created by the Professional Standards Setting Body (PSSB) in partnership with the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs (OAFC) and the Office of the Fire Marshall (OFM). This started back in 1988. This MCSCS page will tell you more. With the input of all parties involved, the curriculum that was created for the Ontario Fire Service met or exceeded NFPA standards. It has been suggested that at the time, Ontario's curriculum was the most comprehensive in North America. As I said, NFPA standards were met or surpassed.
The upcoming adoption of the NFPA 1000 series standards for can be compared to the recent adoption of NFPA 1851 and 1971. That simply replaced CAN/CGSB-155.1-2001 with minimal to effect to the Ontario Fire Service. The changes effected testing procedures. I believe that we will find that using the NFPA standard for qualification and certification will be a rather painless transition. We are already using the job performance checklist. In some cases, we may find that training and sign offs become easier to complete.
The continent wide application of a single standard, simply makes sense. The NFPA standards are also recognized worldwide. Perhaps this will enable more unpaid firefighters to pursue a rewarding career while being adequately compensated. Perhaps this will allow greater retention in the volunteer ranks by increasing the perceived value of achieving accreditation. Perhaps it is quite hard to accurately predict the future.
Regardless, I will be paying attention to this roll out.
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