Commission on Fire Prevention and Control
At a Glance
JEFFREY J. MORRISSETTE, State
Fire Administrator
Established - 1975
Statutory
authority -
CGS Sec. 7-323
Central
office - Connecticut
Fire Academy, 34 Perimeter Road
Windsor Locks, CT 06096
Average number of full-time employees - 20
Recurring
operating expenses - $2,349,718
Capital
outlay - $335,464
Organizational
structure - Office of State Fire
Administration, Training, Certification, and Fiscal Services.
Mission
To prevent or mitigate the effects of fire and
disasters, either natural or man-made, on the citizens of the State of
Connecticut. This objective shall be
accomplished through the development and delivery of state-of-the-art
educational programs designed to meet nationally recognized standards,
certification of individuals to such standards and maintenance of up-to-date
resources for use by fire service personnel, public educators and other first
responders.
Statutory
Responsibility
The
Commission proudly presents the following summary of services, programs and
activities as evidence that the entrusted responsibilities have been faithfully
administered.
The
Commission is charged with and has primary responsibility for training, public
fire and life safety education and professional certification for members of
the fire service. Connecticut General Statutes Title 7; Sections 7-323(j)
through 7-323(q), 13(a)-248.
Public Service
The
commissioners and staff are committed to Public Service Excellence. Every
effort is made to continually promote and market quality agency services as
well as enhance communications with our constituency.
A
trade show display booth was again staffed at several occupationally related
state and regional conferences during the year. Agency staff members continued to regularly serve as an expert
resource to network television, radio and newsprint media. This has positively impacted and reinforced
local public fire and life safety education efforts.
Improvements/Achievements 2002-03
A
conscious effort is continually made to schedule programs and services within
every geographic region of the state.
To fairly balance program development and delivery the competing needs
and priorities of both the volunteer and career fire service are considered.
Reducing
Waste
The
Commission remains a small, efficient, organizationally streamlined
agency. Full-time staff serve as
facilitators and coordinators to per-diem adjunct instructors that deliver a
majority of agency services.
Events/Activities
The
State Fire Administrator and staff remain active in state and national
committees, boards and organizations in an effort to maintain a positive
proactive impact upon services. By
Connecticut General Statutes, the Administrator serves on both the State
Emergency Response and Enhanced 911 Commissions. He also serves on the state Domestic Preparedness Senior Steering
Council and the Urban Search and Rescue Advisory Board maintaining vital
communication links. The Director of
Training serves as the Commission’s representative to the Department of Public
Health’s Office of Emergency Medical Services Advisory Board. He also serves as the President of the North
American Fire Training Directors.
Agency events and activities included:
·
Due
to the state budget crisis, two agency employees were laid-off and a third
bumped from his position. The ability to deliver services was further impacted
by the death of one of our full-time Trainers and the early retirement of the
agency’s Executive Secretary.
·
Assisted
the Connecticut Fire Chiefs’ Association to implement the Statewide Fire-Rescue
Disaster Response Plan. Encouraged
local fire department participation through a formal Memorandum of
Understanding. To date, approximately
60 municipalities have agreed to participate.
·
Orientation
training was provided for agency staff who may be called to serve as Fire
Service Liaisons in the state Office of Emergency Management’s Emergency
Operations Center.
·
Finalized
distribution of Thermal Imaging Cameras (TIC) to local fire departments and
several state agencies. A total of 322
TIC’s were distributed with the assistance of the Office of Policy and
Management.
·
Continued
administration of the 800 FIRE LINE program, a national volunteer fire and
emergency services recruitment tool.
During the fiscal year, 84 calls were received with 27 referred to local
fire, EMS, and other emergency response related organizations.
·
In
cooperation with the Clinton Fire Department, hosted a regional forum on
volunteer recruitment and retention.
·
Coordinated
and delivered a regional Juvenile Firesetting Intervention Training program for
representatives from Connecticut and Rhode Island fire departments with 68
participants.
·
Continued
staff assistance to the Connecticut Fallen Firefighters Memorial
Committee. Dedication of the Memorial
was held on August 18, 2002. Phase II
of the Memorial project incorporates compiling and inscribing the names of those
firefighters that died in the line of duty onto the Memorial.
·
Delivered
two, five-day “Introduction to the Fire Service” summer training camps for
youths 14 to18 years of age with 76 participants. Delivered one weekend session with 16 participants.
·
Academy
dormitory rooms were occupied an equivalent of 3,367 room nights during the
year.
·
Provided
ongoing assistance to the Joint Council of Connecticut Fire Service
Organizations including coordination of the fifth Annual Fire Service Day at
the Capitol and the annual Legislative Reception.
·
Maintained
and further improved the agency’s presence on the Internet. While the Department of Information
Technology (DOIT) was only able to provide web page activity for the first six
months of the fiscal year it shows a significant increase over past years. Six months web activity indicates our
website experienced 100,860 user sessions with a total of 1,696,637 hits on the
entire site.
·
Continued
use of the agency’s electronic mail list service providing immediate
dissemination of information on a wide range of topics to subscribers. A total of 751 messages were transmitted
during the reporting period, a 31.5 percent increase over the previous
year.
·
Continued
close contact and dissemination of press releases to the media most
specifically in areas of public fire and life safety education. Several generated in-depth media
interviews.
·
Agency
staff, in support of the Department of Public Safety’s Homeland Security
Division, has assisted with planning for the organization of a state Urban
Search and Rescue (USAR) team.
·
Hosted
the Chemical, Biological, Incendiary and Radiological Weapons of Mass
Destruction Training program for military and Department of Public Safety
Emergency Response Unit personnel.
·
With
the assistance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), presented
four Assistance to Firefighters Grant workshop programs throughout the state
with 292 participants.
·
Continued
in an advocacy role on fire service issues to members of the Connecticut
General Assembly and United States Congress.
·
Continued
participation on the Connecticut State Firefighters’ Association Education
Committee in support of the Regional Fire Training Schools. A Mission Delineation agreement was approved
between the Connecticut Fire Academy and Regional Schools.
·
Specified,
bid and purchased five mobile Foam Trailers to serve as a resource to local
fire departments on a regional response basis.
Units have been located and are operated by the Hartford, New Haven,
Norwich, Fairfield and Waterbury Fire Departments.
·
Coordinated
the delivery of the State Emergency Response Commission’s Annual Conference
with 170 participants. The conference
theme was Unified Command.
·
Staff
held a September 11th Remembrance Ceremony at the Connecticut Fire
Academy.
·
Participated
in the United States Postal Service Heroes Stamp Dedication held at Fairfield
University.
·
Represented
the State of Connecticut at two Line of Duty Death funerals during the year.
Certification Division
Director Frederick W. Piechota, Jr.
administers the Certification Division. The division is responsible for the
development and administration of a voluntary fire service testing and
certification program. All examinations are based upon the Standards for Fire
Service Professional Qualifications developed by the National Fire Protection
Association and adopted as agency regulations. The certification system
continues to be accredited by both the National Board on Fire Service
Professional Qualifications (NBFSPQ) and the International Fire Service
Accreditation Congress (IFSAC). The
security and integrity of the system remains a high priority as a majority of
Connecticut’s fire departments have mandated certification through contractual
or organizational requirements making it crucial the system be able to
withstand legal challenge.
Fiscal Year 2003 saw a total of 3,328
personnel tested within the 14 levels of professional competency offered with
an 85 percent passing rate realized.
Individuals certified by the Commission are eligible to voluntarily apply
for national certification offered by our two accrediting boards.
The division continues to refine
practical skills testing to comply with the Testing-in-Context model. Significant progress has been made on the
completion and initiation of a scenario based examination process designed to closely
examine the Job Performance Requirements of national standards in real life
situations. Working closely with
curriculum developers, the division has collaborated on the development of an
innovative examination methodology for the level of Fire Officer IV that will
result in tangible and functional long-range plans for local fire departments.
The Commission has entered into an
agreement with a nationally recognized subject matter expert to develop
computer based simulations to examine the decision making process of Hazardous
Material Technicians. Project rollout
is expected by the third quarter of fiscal year 2004.
The division assisted a number of fire
departments and municipalities with the development and administration of local
promotional and entry-level examinations through the use of its test item
database.
Fiscal Services Division
The
Fiscal Services Division is led by Director Peter F. O’Neil. The division is
responsible for the Commission’s accounting, budgeting, personnel, purchasing,
payroll, contracting and physical plant functions at the Connecticut Fire
Academy. The Commission continues the use of contracted custodial and food
services for its customers and staff.
The
division has spent a considerable amount of time this past year transferring
many of its administrative procedures over to Core-CT, a statewide system that
utilizes enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. This new system will replace Connecticut state government’s core
financial and administrative computer systems including central and agency
accounting, purchasing, accounts payable, asset management, inventory, payroll,
time and attendance, workers’ compensation, personnel and other business
systems. Benefits of this single
integrated system are: eliminates duplication of data entry; provides for more
timely and accurate vendor payments; ability to view and update all information
online in real time as well as better reporting and analysis of human resource
and payroll information.
The division continued administration of
payments to volunteer fire departments for emergency responses to limited
access highways. Allotted funding
permitted 2,364 individual payments this past fiscal year.
Cooperation and progress continues with
the agency’s recycling program.
Recycled totals for the past year are as follows: newspaper 1.25 tons;
bottles and cans 1,150 pounds; cardboard 3.25 tons; and white office paper
seven tons.
As in past years, a substantial amount of
publishing continues to be accomplished by the agency. Materials include student workbooks and
manuals, instructor guides, class flyers, and course catalogs. Our contracted audio-visual library remains
very active loaning local fire departments over 1,000 training/education slides,
videotapes and multi-media programs.
The division has continued success in its
efforts to collect on past due accounts.
Total accounts receivable over 120 days continues to be less than one
percent outstanding.
Training Division
The Training Division is led by Director
Adam D. Piskura. The division is
responsible for the development and delivery of Fire Suppression, Hazardous
Materials/OSHA Compliance, Emergency Medical Services and Public Fire and Life
Safety Education training programs.
The division is comprised of full-time
staff and 150 part-time adjunct instructors.
Each individual is dedicated to keeping Connecticut’s firefighters well
trained and prepared for safe operations through the delivery of quality
training and educational programs. During the year, the division conducted 216
training programs reaching 4,138 students resulting in 93,025 contact
hours. Our largest single training
event, the annual June Fire School, enjoyed an enrollment of 652 students
participating in 41 unique training programs.
Curriculum development projects included
pilot testing a lesson plan for Commercial Driver License (CDL) for students to
achieve their Class-1 vehicle operators license. This was in response to a request from the Connecticut State
Police to train their Emergency Services Unit personnel. The initial training was successful leading
to a 100 percent pass rate on the Department of Motor Vehicles examination. This program will be used to train those
hospitals and fire departments that received a mass decontamination trailer
from the Office of Emergency Management.
The Connecticut Fire Academy’s Bookstore
completed its second year of operation enhancing our customer service efforts
in providing multimedia training and educational resources to local fire
departments and individual firefighters.
It also provides curriculum support materials to our internal customers
charged with program delivery.
The Academy continues to offer the
Candidate Physical Ability Test (CPAT) to evaluate applicants for career fire
department positions. CPAT is located
at the Academy’s Meriden facility. The
pass rate is currently averaging 70 percent.
An increased number of fire departments and municipalities throughout
Connecticut have adopted this test to identify firefighter candidates with the
greatest ability for a successful career.
Federal grant assistance was pursued and awarded. Funding is used to subsidize or offer free
learning opportunities in the following areas:
Hazardous Materials
Training $
130,000
Fire Officer Programs $ 25,000
The Academy, sensitive to Connecticut’s
emergency responder’s needs, has offered over 25 Environmental Protection Agency
Emergency Response to Hazardous Materials Incidents (40-Hour) programs
allowing the responders to safely respond to and investigate/mitigate incidents
involving unknown chemical and biological agents. We also conducted 25 deliveries of Emergency Response to
Terrorism: Basic Concepts classes to prepare the states responders and
municipal officials in the event of a terrorist incident.
Commissioners
Members of the Commission on Fire Prevention and Control are appointed
by the Governor and represent statewide fire service organizations. The following commissioners served during
the year: Chairman Peter S. Carozza, Jr., Waterbury; Vice Chairman Kevin J.
Kowalski, Simsbury; Secretary Edward F. Haber, Berlin; Clifford C. Brammer,
Jr., Thomaston; Edward B. Gomeau, Greenwich; William S. Johnson, West Haven;
Wayne Maheu, Middletown; William H. McDonald, Ph.D., Farmington; Daniel
Milewski, Stratford; Andy Ouellette, Broad Brook; Richard H. Nicol, Middlebury;
Charles M. Stankye, Jr., Derby; James P. Wilkinson, Milford and John R.
Vendetta, Hartford.