Federal grant to fund firefighter training

PANAMA CITY — Thanks to a federal grant Bay County will have a better trained firefighting crew.

The County Commission approved a $134,472 Assistance to Firefighters grant recently that will pay for 35 firefighters’ emergency medical technician (EMT) training and 21 firefighters’ paramedic training.

The grant required a 25 percent county match, so there’s a total of $168,427 available for the training, said Mark Bowen, county Emergency Services director. Of that money, $48,895 will go toward EMT schooling and $119,532 will go toward paramedic schooling.

The county applied for the money about a year and a half ago, Bowen said.

“The way those grants work is that a lot of times a year or more will go by before the federal government actually awards the grant,” he said.

The notification can come in surprising ways too, like a letter of congratulations from Sen. Bill Nelson’s office before official word has been received, Bowen said. 

It works as a reimbursement grant — the county sends the firefighters to school and then sends its receipts to the federal government for repayment.

 “It’s a level of service we want to get all of the county firefighters trained to, but we would never be able to send this many without this kind of grant,” Bowen said.

Right now the county is paying for about six firefighters to attend EMT school at Chipola College, Bowen said.

“That’s one of the ways we’re helping to make the match for this grant,” he said.

Firefighter training comes in a series of steps. It starts with first responder, which teaches first aid and CPR; then moves to EMT, which teaches basic life support; and finishes with paramedic, which teaches advanced life support.

“Every fire department, I think, that’s moving forward is looking at the next level of medical service they can provide,” Bowen said. “If they’re going to medical calls, let’s have the highest level of training we can have.”

The EMT course typically runs about six months, and the paramedic course runs more than a year, Bowen said. As a small department, that means the county can’t send everyone out for training at the same time because no one would be left to answer calls. So the county will ask for an extension, even up to three years, to spend the money.

“I’m pretty confident that the grant folks will work with us on it,” Bowen said.

The county has about 55 firefighters, which handle its unincorporated areas. Approximately half are EMTs already or in EMT school, Bowen said. It also has three paramedics, and six in paramedic school.

Chairman George Gainer was pleased about the grant and believes better skilled firefighters will mean a cost savings for the county. He’s no fan of seeing six to eight government vehicles and a large crew covering one car crash or emergency event. He said if one truck and a smaller crew could arrive on-scene and handle the situation or decide if an ambulance was needed, that would be better.

Gainer said it would lead to a “definite savings.”

“This is the first step, in my opinion, of getting everybody cross trained,” he said. “There should be quite a bit more of that.”