News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
State fire officials honored the Cookeville Fire Department for its commitment to training with more than 5,600 training hours last year.
That’s fourth highest in the state. Training and Safety Battalion Chief Daniel Snyder said Cookeville officers frequently pursue additional training opportunities.
“They’re trying to get certified to drive and pump,” Snyder said. “We have some guys going to RIT, to rope special operations training. And they come to me and say, ‘Hey, can I go to this class?’ And I (say), ‘Yes, let’s go.’ We have several guys that are preparing for promotions, you know, that will come up in the future.”
Snyder said they usually have a high number of contact hours each year, but ranking fourth across the state represents one of the city’s highest rankings ever. He said he hopes the recognition will show Cookeville citizens they are a dedicated and professional workforce here to support the community.
“We want to give them the best product,” Snyder said. “You know, that they get a good return on their investment when they’re paying taxes in the city of Cookeville that they can expect, if they call 911, that they’re going to get a well-trained, well-rounded response from the fire department.”
Snyder said training is such a common part of the department that it did not feel like the department had been going out of it way to train more than anyone else.
“When you see yourself stack up against other departments, large departments, metro-size departments, and then even pass some of those departments, it kind of makes you, myself, it makes me proud of the guys,” Snyder said. “You know, that they’re putting this extra effort and they’re going above and beyond.”
Snyder said it is possible to see this recognition inspire fire departments in neighboring communities to increase their contact hours as well. Snyder said that would be encouraging.
“We do feed off of each other, right?” Snyder said. “And so all of us have a competitive spirit. The type A personality is an individual that usually is usually drawn to this profession.”
The hours included in the report only measure how much time employees spent in classrooms, Snyder said, not any of the preparation or extra work that goes into trainings. Snyder said the city’s recent new hires and more firefighters being trained, contributed to the rankings.
Snyder said the recruitment class takes four hundred hours, officer classes range from forty to eighty hours long. The Tennessee Fire Service and Codes Enforcement Academy issued the rankings.
