The Peachtree City Fire Department is offering online training courses for its 142 career and volunteer personnel.
The department last week won approval from the city council to shift $11,261 from other training programs in this year’s budget to fund the online training agreement with Target Safety. The programs, which are web-based, are available 24 hours a day, officials said.
The department will continue to have live hands-on training and drills. But the online classes are a good fit for a department that has a mix of full time members and also part-timers who work full-time for other departments, said Assistant Fire Chief Joe O’Conor.
The courses are approved for continuing education credit by state and federal agencies including the National Fire Protection Administration.
The online training started as a three-month pilot program last year, with more than 3,300 hours of instruction offered online. The content varied from fire, EMS, driving, hazardous material response, leadership and other topics.
The program also allows each department member’s training record to be tracked to insure they are getting the necessary training, officials said.
Part of the savings is due to the elimination of out-of-town training for water rescue, as the city struck a deal with Fayette County for the training to happen at nearby Lake Horton. That saved $4,736 and is combined with a $6,525 savings from training on the department’s FireHouse software program.
Fire officials envision using the online training service year after year for both paid and volunteer personnel.
