On Saturday January 16, 2016, seven (7) members of the TVFC Fire Police participated in the first day of a 2-day entry level course designed to introduce them to the basic fundamentals of the fire service. Course components include the historical overview of the fire service, fire service organization, firefighter safety, personal protective equipment, tools, emergency lighting, etc...

As the number of emergency volunteers continue to decline throughout the county and the Commonwealth, this course addresses the concept that fire police - while operating within their scope of training - could offer limited assistance on the fire ground in areas other than traffic and crowd control.

TVFC encourages our emergency responders to be cross-trained. At the January 6, 2016 Annual Chief’s Night, twenty-eight (28) of our firefighters and fire police who have completed the Basic Fire Police class were sworn in as special fire police officers for 2016-17 by Cynthia Eshleman, President of the Caln Township Commissioners.

The fire police who participated in the first day of the Introduction to Fire class had very positive reaction to the class. They appreciated learning the history of the fire service as well as the hands-on experience of inspecting and working with various components of turnout gear. They are looking forward to next week’s class.

This is the first time the Department of Emergency Services has offered this course specifically for fire police in Chester County. Thorndale’s fire police are part of the 30 participants in the oversubscribed course. We applaud DES for offering this course for fire police. We hope to see this course offered again in the future for other fire police.