Spring Summer 2005 - Office of the Fire Commissioner

BURNING ISSUES
NEWS AND VIEWS OF MANIT
Niverville Emergency Services Honours
Deputy Chief
Contributed by Ferd Klassen, Fire Chief,
Niverville Emergency Services
On Jan 16, 2005, at the annual
Christmas party for the
Niverville Emergency
Services, Earl Rempel, training
officer and the Deputy Chief for the
Niverville Fire Sevices, was honoured
for 30 years of service to the Town of
Niverville and area. He served the
majority of the years as a training
officer. Although 30 years is a long
time, he says that he isn’t ready to
give it up yet. We hope to have him
around for many years to come.
Presentation made by ferd Klassen, Fire
Chief (left) and Russell Hicks, Captain (far
right) on behalf of the Niverville Fire
Fighters Association.
On behalf of the Town of Niverville
Councillor John Funk (left) presents
plaque to Earl Rempel (right).
Winkler Fire and Rescue Conference 2005
Contributed by Roger Gillis, ESO, OFC and Allan Gray, ESO, OFC
Once again Chief Klassen and
the Winkler Fire Fighters have
pulled off a great conference
with over 100 candidates and
participants, over 20 fire departments
in attendance. Wow! Speakers from
down South, our US counter parts,
Fire Chief Bobby Halton from Coppell
Texas and Chief Bill Godfrey from
Orange County Florida delivered state
of the art information on Fire Ground
Management and Incident Command.
Chief Halton is obviously a strong
follower of Al Brunacini from Phoneix
Fire Department and subscribes to his
Fire Ground Command material. As a
matter of fact, Chief Halton is one of
the co-authors of the Fire Ground
Command second edition.
We all agree that communications and
the transfer of functional command
information are imperative to the life
safety and well being of our fire
fighters. Therefore, these seminars are
invaluable. Chief Halton spent a
considerable amount of time studying
incidents that have cost our fellow fire
fighters their lives. His reflection of
these studies has formed the basis of
which his Fire Ground Expertise
Development seminar was put
together. Chief Godfrey hauled up
several computers, radios and state of
the art software for use in the incident
command, fire ground operation
management simulation. Talk about
putting into practice and developing a
behaviour that will be second nature
on the fire ground, these guys know
how to WALK THE WALK AND
TALK THE TALK… Chief Halton and
Chief Godfrey, on behalf of the
Manitoba Fire Service, thank you for
sharing your valuable experiences and
training methodology.
Left to right: Chief Bill Godfrey, Chief
Garry Klassen, Chigt Bobby Halton
4
Command Sector Officers using
Computer assisted simulation.
Left to right: Chief Bill Godfrey, Chief
Garry Klassen, Chigt Bobby Halton