City officials are doing a little outside-the-box thinking to address an ongoing staffing shortage within the Iola Fire Department.
Iola Fire Chief Corey Isbell attended Monday’s City Council meeting to speak about an upcoming Firefighter/EMT Academy, which kicks off Aug. 21.
The eight-week academy will train applicants on the basics of becoming a firefighter or emergency medical technician, as well as how to handle hazardous materials.
Twenty-one applicants have signed up for the academy, Isbell said, with the goal of gaining as many as nine new employees by the end of the eight-week course.
The academy addresses one of the key barriers to finding qualified firefighters and ambulance personnel, Isbell noted, in that the city is offering up the training, rather than requiring personnel to be trained in order to be hired.
Additionally, the cost of the training is mitigated through a FEMA grant that pays for most of the instructional materials.
The only cost to the city, Isbell explained, is the hourly paycheck the cadets will earn.
Those who complete the academy will be required to stay with the city for two years, Isbell said, or they will have to reimburse the city for the cost of the training. That dollar figure has yet to be determined.
Upon completing the course, the applicants then go through the traditional certification process from the state for EMTs, or from the University of Kansas for firefighter I or hazmat certification. Those tests cost about $40 a person, Isbell said.
“A lot of these applicants are local,” Isbell said. “We’re gonna grow our own, we hope.”
If nine cadets successfully make it through the academy, it would put IFD at nearly full staff for both firefighters and ambulance personnel.
“I can’t guarantee all these folks are gonna make it through,” Isbell added.
Ideally, the department is fully staffed within six months, Isbell said.
The applicants were asked to partake in a physical endurance test Monday and Tuesday at Iola’s Riverside Park, where they were required to perform such tasks as roll up and unspool fire hose, lug a 200-pound bag along the ground, carry a 135-pound barbell a set distance, and hammer a weighted I-beam along a sliding scale, before ending the test by carrying a length of hose to the top of the football stadium grandstand and then scaling a ladder.
The test is timed, Isbell noted, but most important is that the students finish the course.
“That tells me a lot if they’re able to finish,” he said.
