The people at Windham's Fire-Rescue Department

The last article that the department put in The Windham Eagle was about the equipment that the department operates. The apparatus that we use for service is only as good as the people that operate the equipment. This week we are going to talk about the people that operate the equipment. 

The department staff currently is made up of 65 to 80 people. There was a time when there were over 100 people on the rosters of the companies that made up the Windham Fire-Rescue Department. Over the years people left for many reasons, age, change in career status, family changes, marital changes, job relocations, family time requirements or time requirements, to participate in the department responses. 

The majority of the people that operate the apparatus are your friends and neighbors in our community. As I think about our people I am reminded of the nursery rhyme “the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker”. These are the people that comprise the department. Each of our people join the department in addition to their professional career. We begin with their career talents and train them to become a fire and rescue professionals. The department has computer technicians, electricians, plumbers, mothers, fathers, grandparents, safety workers at facilities, public safety dispatchers, oil burner technicians, telephone technicians, real estate sellers, mortgage specialists and other assorted careers or talents. The department also has many people that have moved from the Windham Fire-Rescue Department to become career fire and emergency medical providers in surrounding communities. These talents come to be very valuable when we deal with emergencies. We are not afraid to ask for career professionals for assistance with an electrical or boiler problem. 

The department is currently preparing to prepare some new personnel to join the ranks of the department. Some of the people are ready to go to work as far as the training requirements that are needed. Some others will begin their career with training to become a productive member of the department. The new member will be required to attend either fire training for either fire or emergency medical service. They will begin with one of the fields and move to the other when the first is completed. In the area of fire training, they will begin with a program that we incorporate with other communities to provide the needed training for the member. This training will go two nights per week and some Saturdays. It will begin in January and end in June. At the end of the six months they will be required to take a written test to verify their knowledge base for the tasks. In addition, they will spend an entire Saturday performing skill demonstrations that are evaluated by career personnel that perform this task for Maine Fire Service Institute. Their task is to make sure the people have the skills to safely do the job of firefighting. The total time spent in this part of the training is approximately 200 hours of training covering 37 chapters of topics and skills that are required for the specific job.

The next phase of their training is emergency medical training to attain certification as an emergency medical technician. Here again, these people will go to school for about six months covering specific medical topics such as the skeletal system, the digestive system, strokes, shock, childbirth, cardiac issues and many other subjects. This again will take them about six months of two nights per week and some Saturdays. They will be knowledge tested frequently and skill tested for specific tasks as the program progresses. Here again at the end of the program Maine Emergency Medical Services will provide written tests that the individuals must pass. 

This is followed by hands on skill testing before the individual is provided with a license from the State of Maine Emergency Medical Services (MEMS). Thereafter the individual is required to attain educational and hands on activities for a certain amount of hours depending on the license level of the individual. There are three license levels for medical certification. They are emergency medical technician, advanced emergency medical technician, and emergency medical technician-paramedic. In a future article we will talk of these levels in depth.

These two programs are the basics for the initial training. Then the training becomes experience based for members that respond to calls for service for you, the citizens. They are prepared to provide safe service for medical and fire emergencies. In addition, throughout Maine there are various training opportunities in more advanced topics that are needed to become better trained with more knowledge. 

These are the basics and in addition to these, we conduct weekly training on assorted topics to keep the skills updated. Additionally, there is always new knowledge and equipment that is coming into the profession. We dedicate one of our Wednesday trainings each month to medical training. In January, the department requires each member to perform mandatory trainings that are required by the State of Maine in a multitude of tasks. This is done through computers, classroom time with an instructor or websites that meet the requirements. This time commitment alone is between ten and fifteen hours. 

The Windham Fire-Rescue Department accepts applications for membership throughout the year and conducts the entry process twice each year. We are always interested in attracting good qualified members. You can email us at chhammond@town.windham.me.us or call us at 207-892-1911. If you are interested in joining the department then please come on into the station and discuss membership with us.