Nova Scotia needs to stop relying on just one fire school, according to Joe Triff, president of the Atlantic Provinces Professional Fire Fighters Association.
The province recently cut ties with the current fire fighter school in Waverley over safety concerns following an audit of the facility.
Triff says it is a step in the right direction for fire fighter safety, but the province should move away from a single school model, because it is hard for fire fighters to travel there, especially if it is far away.
“It takes volunteers out of their home districts. It’s a long way if you’re traveling from Yarmouth or Sydney or Amherst for courses,” said Triff, adding that the province should look at getting instructors who travel around instead of the students.
He said there are also several other options to makes changes, like getting NSCC to offer courses, similar to N.B. and P.E.I., where colleges offer the courses.
Fire fighter certification will also be heavily affected by the province cutting ties with the provincial fire school.
The school offered both training and certification.
Fire departments can bring in people to train their fighters, but the province has to find a way to make it easy to get certification P.E.I. and N.B., said Triff.
However, only a few departments were still relying on the school.
Triff is also the vice-president of the Halifax Professional Fire Fighters union. He says Halifax already was doing their own training, and their training is unaffected by the province cutting ties with the school.
The group is working with the province on a firefighting review which should be ready in the fall.
He says change should come after that.
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