ATLANTA - The Georgia Senate passed legislation
Tuesday aimed at loosening training requirements for volunteer fire departments
in the state.
Senate Bill 342 would create a council tasked with establishing training and certification rules for volunteer fire departments in Georgia that are separate from those required for full-time professional fire departments.
The bill passed the Senate unanimously and heads to the Georgia House for consideration.
Its sponsor, Sen. Burt Jones, said the measure’s intent is to loosen training requirements for volunteer firefighters. Currently, volunteers receive the same kind of stringent training that professional firefighters are required to take.
Jones, R-Jackson, said tougher training may scare off qualified people interested in volunteering particularly in rural areas where volunteer firehouses are often critical to a community’s public safety readiness.
“This will alleviate those requirements and hopefully improve our volunteer network again,” Jones said.
The bill would hand oversight functions to a new seven-member Georgia Volunteer Fire Service Council tasked with establishing training programs for volunteer firefighters and certifying anyone who has received training as a federal firefighter.
It would also prohibit persons with felony convictions from joining a volunteer firehouse, unless more than five years have passed since the conviction and the person has both completed a training program and been recommended by the trainers.
Last week, Senate Public Safety Committee Chairman John Albers, R-Roswell, said changing the rules for volunteer firefighters would greatly help rural parts of the state that are stretched thin in terms of fire-safety resources.
Senate Bill 342 would create a council tasked with establishing training and certification rules for volunteer fire departments in Georgia that are separate from those required for full-time professional fire departments.
The bill passed the Senate unanimously and heads to the Georgia House for consideration.
Its sponsor, Sen. Burt Jones, said the measure’s intent is to loosen training requirements for volunteer firefighters. Currently, volunteers receive the same kind of stringent training that professional firefighters are required to take.
Jones, R-Jackson, said tougher training may scare off qualified people interested in volunteering particularly in rural areas where volunteer firehouses are often critical to a community’s public safety readiness.
“This will alleviate those requirements and hopefully improve our volunteer network again,” Jones said.
The bill would hand oversight functions to a new seven-member Georgia Volunteer Fire Service Council tasked with establishing training programs for volunteer firefighters and certifying anyone who has received training as a federal firefighter.
It would also prohibit persons with felony convictions from joining a volunteer firehouse, unless more than five years have passed since the conviction and the person has both completed a training program and been recommended by the trainers.
Last week, Senate Public Safety Committee Chairman John Albers, R-Roswell, said changing the rules for volunteer firefighters would greatly help rural parts of the state that are stretched thin in terms of fire-safety resources.
“We all need to remember that the grand majority of the land mass of this state is covered by rural volunteer firefighters,” Albers said. “We want to make sure we set them up for success and we’re doing the right things in order to maintain safety in each one of those communities.”
