State review finds improved conditions
95 percent pass rate reported at Banks County fire department
BY ANGELA GARY
A state fire organization returned to Banks County last week for a review of state requirements being met and found that 95 percent of all skills checked passed. This was not the case two months ago, when the county only had a 39 percent pass rate.
The Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council, located in Forsyth, visited Banks County Fire Services on Jan. 3 and again on March 18-20.
“On Jan. 3, all stations were in good order and met the requirements for compliance,” according to the written report from David Cummings of the fire training council. “We also checked the training records for the continued annual training and core competency checkoffs and we noticed that all records were incomplete. We could not locate the records for the continued annual training and the core competency check off books were not completed. When we rode out to the stations, you had nine personnel on duty that were state certified to spot check on the core competencies. Of the 18 skills done, only seven were passed giving the department a 39 percent pass rate.”
The council decided to conduct another site visit March 18-20. The results from that follow up visit, were as follows: “out of the 19 personnel on duty, they performed a total of 57 checkoffs with three failures…95 percent of all skills checked were passed. The training records were in excellent order with all recommendations met. I would like to congratulate you and your staff on a job well done.”
