E.P.S. FIRE FIGHTERS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 108, 1 February 1943, Page 4

E.P.S. FIRE FIGHTERS

School Of Instruction Opens In Wellington

A school of instruction for E.P.S. district fire wardens and assistant district fire wardens in the Wellington city area has been established at the Central lure Station. Tlie instructional course will be or eight weeks’ duration and consists of two two-hour classes weekly. . Fifty district and assistant district fire wardens are attending the school. In order to relieve these wardens ot their ordinary duties while they are attending the course the usual parades of city and suburban E.P.S. fire sections are being conducted by the senior patrolmen of their respective sections. The instructional course is the most comprehensive yet devised in Wellington —and probably in New Zealand —for training E.P.S. fire-fighters, and embraces first-aid and anti-gas precautions as well as a wide range of study and practical training in fire-fighting. It includes also training in leadership and instruction on how to impart instruction. The course, besides providing, a “refresher” for wardens, is expected to establish a new uniformity of training and procedure, and also to set a definite standard of efficiency for this branch of the E.P.S. . At the conclusion of the school district fire wardens and their assistants will resume duties with their sections and will be expected during the rest of the .year to pass on the instruction and training to all fire personnel. The normal strength of the E.P.S. fire-fighting group in Wellington city is about 1000, but membership in the latter part of 1942 fell much below establishment strength in many districts through Army recruitment and transfers for various unavoidable reasons. The school of instruction is under the supervision of the Wellington E.P.S. fire sections commander, Air. A. F. AlcJennett, third officer of the Wellington Fire Board.