02 Council Minutes (08/23/01) - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the Special City Council Meeting August 23, 2001 Page 3 project for the Paris Fire Department. Chief Grooms gave a brief history of this program that has been in place since the late 1970's and early 1980's. Chief Grooms said the State of Texas requires firefighters to be certified at a minimum level of an ECA, which is an Emergency Care Attendant. He said the state says that they will take that class, pass the class and they will be certified as a firefighter. Chief Burgin ruled that all new firefighters would be trained to the level of EMT. After a period of time some of the firefighters were dropping their certifications as they were promoted, and some of the firefighter level employees began to allow their certifications to lapse as well. Chief Grooms advised that this issue was addressed in staff meetings with the consensus that the EMT certification must be maintained throughout a firefighters career regardless of rank attained because of the First Responder Program. Chief Grooms said it is his goal to make this happen and that the training is the key. Chief Grooms told the City Council that he will be working with Cliff Brooks and Larry McDonald, who are Paramedics on B-shift with the city of Paris Emergency Medical Service and are also associated with the Paris Junior College Emergency Medical Training Department. They have agreed to assist in this project. Chief Grooms advised that there are eighteen employees who will be required to take this course. Paris Junior College agreed to have all of the classes taught at Fire Station No. 1, which defrayed some of the cost. By using certified instructors within the department, they were able to reduce the tuition costs. The department has enough training manuals to accommodate their needs in that area. Clinical training will be required by Paris Junior College to complete 96 combined hours of clinical rotation involving time spent in the ambulance and in the hospital. The clinical training will, because of staffing allowance, have to be completed while off duty thus increasing possible overtime cost.