A State Fire College

A State Fire College

An important move which should point the way for other states which have yet to adopt the measure is contained in a bill introduced in the New York State assembly, providing for a State Fire College for Firemen. This measure, if it becomes a law— and there seems very good prospects of this—will provide for the holding of one or more sessions each year at which, by means of lectures or otherwise, instruction will be given in modern methods of firefighting and fire prevention, instructive use and care of fire-fighting apparatus and equipment, providing means for fighting fires and all other instruction that will be of service to the up-to-date member of a fire department.

This plan should do much toward increasing efficiency in fire departments, especially in those of the smaller towns and villages where the firemen have comparatively little opportunity to receive instruction which the members of many of the larger fire departments of the state are given. Their knowledge of fire-fighting must be very largely drawn from experience, and, as they do not have as many fires to attend as the firemen of the larger cities, this experience is quite limited. The proposed college would give an excellent opportunity for remedying this defect. The two men from each department provided for would receive the thorough instruction of the college and on their return would transmit this knowledge to the other members of their own fire department. Thus, the influence of the college would not stop at the members who attend the sessions, but it would prove a series of widening circles, spreading out through the entire fire-fighting forces of the state.