The Orleans County Emergency Management Office (EMO) held a graduation celebration July 23 at EMO Fire Training Tower to honor the 20 students who successfully completed the Interior Firefighting Operation (IFO) training course. This course prepares graduates to operate as interior structural firefighters, meaning they engage in fire suppression and rescue operations within buildings and enclosed structures.
In his speech to graduates, Orleans County EMO Director Justin Niederhofer, “The Interior Firefighting Operations course is no small milestone. You’ve learned to enter some of the most dangerous environments imaginable – where others run out, you’ve trained to go in. But tonight’s graduation is not the finish line. It is the starting point of a journey – a lifetime commitment to learning, to safety, and to serving others.”
In order to take the IFO course, students must have successfully completed Basic Exterior Firefighting Operations (BEFO). The BEFO session is a total of 79 training hours and IFO is an additional 50. All training is done by State Fire Instructors and Skills Instructor through the NYS Office of Fire Protection Control.
This rigorous IFO course covers a variety of areas including basic firefighter survival techniques, modern fire control methods, building fire search and victim removal techniques, firefighter survival skills, tactical ventilation, coordinated structure fire interior attack and much more. Students are also trained in use of firefighter personal protective equipment and of self-contained breathing apparatus.
Niederhofer told the graduates, “As Fire Coordinator, I’ve seen firsthand the difference that well-trained, committed firefighters can make in our communities. The moments that test us most – structure fires, rescues, the 3 a.m. alarms in the dead of winter – are where your preparation and heart will shine the brightest. But don’t stop here. This course is a foundation, not a ceiling. Seek more training. Take the next class. Ask questions. Learn from the veterans around you, and one day, become the mentor that future firefighters will look up to. The fire service is constantly evolving – and the only way we stay effective and safe is by continuing to grow.”
The graduates and their Fire Department affiliation are:
•Cory Fults, Clarendon
•Jeffrey Casillo, Murray Joint Fire District
•Carter Prince, Hamlin Morton Walker
•Kalub Wilson, Hamlin Morton Walker
•Benjamin Croce, Hamlin Morton Walker
•William Parkin, Kendall
•Stephen Balka, Kendall
•Logan Gardner, East Shelby
•Joshua Fuller, East Shelby
•Robert Toman, Albion
•Andrew Austin, Ridgeway
•Dylan Taylor, East Shelby
•Austin Seefeldt, Ridgeway
•Victor Jefferds, East Shelby
•Nathan Fuller, East Shelby
•Alex Benz, Shelby
•Chyenne Tackley, Lyndonville
•Tervel Atanassov, Lyndonville
•James Nichols, Alabama
•Alexander Summers, Alabama
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