Press Releases

Essentials of Fire Fighting 2008 Coming in February
 
POULSBO, Wash. (Jan. 25, 2008) -- On the eve of its 20th anniversary, Action Training Systems, Inc. (ATS) is announcing the release of 33 fully updated programs in the Essentials of Fire Fighting series. The video-based series, available on DVD and as computer-based training courses, addresses requirements of NFPA 1001, Standard for Professional Firefighter Qualifications, 2008 Edition.
 
Twenty-three Fire Fighter I programs will be released in February, and 10 programs addressing Firefighter II requirements are set for release in March.
 
ATS first introduced the Essentials series in VHS format as audio-visual aids for the “Essentials of Fire Fighting 3rd Edition,” the leading manual for firefighter training, published by IFSTA/Fire Protection Publications of Oklahoma State University in 1993/1994. ATS revised its series in 1998 for the fourth edition of the manual.
 
"We are proud to again work with ATS on their Essentials,” said IFSTA Curriculum Projects Coordinator Ed Kirtley. “The ATS Essentials series is an invaluable instructional support tool for the IFSTA ‘Essentials of Fire Fighting 5th Edition.’  The videos compliment all of our instructional materials for Fire Fighter I and Fire Fighter II.  I believe every department should have this series in their basic skills training library.”
 
ATS President and CEO George A. Avila Jr. says customers can expect a very comprehensive update of the Essentials series, which has become a staple of video-based tools for fire instruction since it was originally published.  “We’ve put a lot of development time and effort into the revision to ensure the programs meet or exceed NFPA 1001, 2008,” said Avila.
 
ATS more than doubled its production staff during the last 14 months to meet the demands of shooting and editing new video for the programs, which feature real firefighters. Video editors went to great lengths to display best practices in training and current equipment.
 
Lead technical advisor for the ATS Essentials project was Chief Doug Forsman of Union Colony Fire-Rescue Authority in Greeley, Colo. Forsman is a member of the NFPA 1001 Technical Correlating Committee on Professional Qualifications and member of the NFPA Board of Directors. The technical advisory team also included Robert H. Noll, fire chief (retired) of Yukon, Okla., committee chair of “IFSTA Essentials of Fire Fighting IV”; and Jim Rackl, retired from the Federal fire service with 35 years experience. Rackl has served on NFPA and IFSTA committees and is an IFSAC-certified Fire Officer IV and active member of the Donald Wescott Fire Protection District in Colorado Springs, Colo.
 
Senior Content Developer for ATS Essentials project was Pat West, former editor of several national fire service trade magazines and Web sites with 12 years of experience in fire service content. In addition to working with the technical advisory team and IFSTA staff, West solicited input during script development from fire service equipment manufacturers, members of NFPA technical committees and nonprofit organizations.
 
In April 2008 ATS will celebrate its 20th anniversary. “We’re not a Johnny-Come-Lately to the market,” said Avila. “Action Training Systems has been trusted by the fire service for 20 years, not just in training content, but in leading-edge technologies.” 
 
In 1996, ATS began offering computer-based training using its video content on Courseworks. In 2004, ATS began converting its programs to the Iluminar Learning Management System, a platform custom-designed for fire service computer-based training delivery with classroom-quality, media-rich content.
 
As part of a “blended” learning plan, customers can also install new simulation training products from Action Training Systems. “People in the fire service are embracing technology now, and we’ve stayed at the leading edge with our products,” Avila said.
 
ATS’ Essentials series is one of the leading multimedia tools for firefighter training in the United States. Ken Bostwick, sales and marketing director, estimates that more than 8,000 fire departments -- about a quarter of the total number of America’s fire departments -- have used at least one of the Essentials programs.
 
ATS will showcase the new Essentials 2008 series at the 2008 Fire Department Instructors’ Conference FDIC in Indianapolis April 7-12 (booth 4415) and at many upcoming fire service conferences.
 
ACTION TRAINING SYSTEMS Inc., based in Pouslbo, Wash., is a leading producer of multimedia interactive training programs for firefighters and first responders in North America. Established in 1988 and led by President and CEO George A. Avila  Jr., ATS has produced more than 80 courses and 200 fire service and terrorism response training products, including training on CD-ROM, DVD and video, as well as lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations and simulation software and content.
 
All ATS training is instructionally designed to teach to current NFPA standards and provides excellent certification and re-certification test preparation. For more information about ATS, call 1 (800) 755-1440, e-mail info@action-training.com or visit www.action-training.com.
***********************************************


PRESS RELEASE
 10/17/2005
Georgetown City (S.C.) Fire Department Launches ILUMINAR
 
POULSBO, Wash. -- Georgetown City (S.C.) Fire Department announced the launch of ILUMINAR LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (ILMS) this week as its new platform for delivering ACTION TRAINING SYSTEM, Inc.’s multimedia computer-based training content. A five-year client of ATS’ interactive media-rich suite of training products based on NFPA standards, the department provides training over a secure Local Area Network (LAN) directly at firefighter work stations.
 
Developed by ILUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES INC., the ILMS is a new easy-to-use training management system designed to enhance delivery of multimedia interactive computer-based training.
 
According to Georgetown City Fire’s Assistant Chief Bill Johnson, the ILMS has several advantages over Courseworks, the previous platform: “It’s easier to enroll students and to capture information and data about their training once they’ve done that, but also technically, the program is sounder; it’s a smoother operating system,” Johnson said. “The video looks better.”
 
Georgetown City Fire is a combination fire department with 36 paid members and 12 volunteers near the coast of South Carolina, about midway between Myrtle Beach and Charleston. With two fire stations, the department protects a small city of 9,000 and a total population of about 12,000.
 
Johnson said the department’s computer-based training network has become vital to keeping pace with the increasing demands for firefighter training. Relying strictly on instructor-led training was becoming increasingly impractical, Johnson said, because of the challenge of bringing together instructors, class space and scheduling for both career and volunteer members.
 
ATS interactive training is delivered 24/7 at the department’s fire stations – at firefighter convenience and at their own pace. Because the system is maintained on the department’s server, Johnson is able to deliver better video quality and to monitor detailed records on firefighter tests and progress through training courses. As he throws the switch on the ILMS, Johnson said his database on firefighter training is maintained, enabling firefighters to seamlessly pick up where they left off.
 
Georgetown City Fire’s system includes Firefighter I and Firefighter II, HAZMAT Response, Rapid Intervention Teams Assessments, and the Pumper/Operator and Aerial Apparatus series. The system helps firefighters prepare for certification and all members are required to go through the curriculum once a year as a refresher. For refresher purposes, firefighters able to score 90% on a pretest get credit for taking the course without going through it, thus saving unnecessary training time.
 
One of his biggest challenges is keeping volunteer members trained after certification, said Johnson. “Another great advantage of computer-based interactive training is that our volunteers – who aren’t here for 24-hours as our paid members are – can come in and work an evening separate from any regular drills and work on this program. They get an awful lot of training by doing that.”
 
Career members also say they feel better trained because “they’ve got this right in front of them,” said Johnson. Career members are required to take 250 training hours per year and volunteer training requirements are soon to get close to that. “I think they appreciate the independence they have with it,” Johnson said, “they can take their time and do it at their leisure and on their schedule, without having to interrupt other things going on.”
 
Certainly, CBT won’t replace all the various components of the Georgetown City Fire’s training program, Johnson noted, but it’s been a very efficient and economical way to keep firefighter training where it needs to be. Computer-based training provides a foundation of knowledge so that firefighter and instructor time in on-site training is maximized. “You can watch the technique of putting up a ladder on a computer screen, but you still have to follow through with the physical skill of doing that so you feel the weight and you feel the movement of the ladder, so we are still doing practical skills training, but this has augmented our training so much. It’s vastly improved our training program.”
 
Johnson says he welcomes visits from other fire departments interested in seeing a demonstration. “We believe in not reinventing the wheel, and so we like to pass along as much of this as we can,” he said.
 
For more information about Georgetown City Fire Department’s training, contact Johnson via e-mail at billjohnson@georgetowncityfire.org.
  
###
 
********************************************************


PRESS RELEASE
 11/02/2005
Cape Fear (N.C.) Computer Training on the Move;
 $10 Million Training Center Planned
 
HAMPSTEAD, N.C. (Nov. 2, 2005) – Becky Porter, director of Cape Fear Community College (CFCC) Fire Training, has announced that the college’s Hampstead computer training center for firefighters will move to a new $10 million “Safety Training Center” in 2007.
 
The Hampstead center is one of two computer training centers delivering ACTION TRAINING SYSTEMS (ATS), Inc., interactive training to firefighters from across the region and the state. It will temporarily move to a new building on CFCC’s North Campus in January 2006.
 
Currently offering training at 20 computers, the Hampstead center will shut down for the first move in December and reopen in January in Burgaw. Another center with 12 computers at the Myrtle Grove Volunteer Fire Department, near Wilmington city limits, will maintain its location and hours.
 
In the fall of 2007, the Hampstead computer training center will become part of a new Safety Training Center on the CFCC’s North Campus in Wilmington. The center will be funded by CFCC, the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County. Plans also include a training tower, a residential burn building, a commercial burn building, an apparatus driving pad, drafting pit, classrooms and meeting spaces.
 
Approved as training delivery agencies by the Office of State Fire Marshal (OSFM) under the N.C. Department of Insurance, CFCC Fire Training computer centers first opened in the fall of 2001 and have provided more than 5,000 hours of training. Currently the centers offer ACTION TRAINING SYSTEMS’ Firefighter I and Firefighter II series. Their main mission is to support training in the Cape Fear region, but about 20% of users come from fire departments across the state, Porter said.
 
CFCC Fire Training launched the local area network (LAN)-based ILUMINAR LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (ILMS) in January 2005 in both computer centers. Previously, it offered ACTION TRAINING SYSTEMS’ courses only in CD-ROM format.
 
Porter was pleased with the move away from CDs, which can become worn or lost. Now, thanks to the new ILMS, all course content is stored on a CFCC’s local server. Instructors control students’ access to the courses over the network. ILMS also provides instructors with utilities to manage student data.
 
Porter said she’s “ecstatic” with the ILMS platform: “Once we got everything installed and working right, we have had very few problems.”
 
All courses are multimedia, interactive, self-paced and instructionally designed to meet NFPA standards.
 
After taking the computer training, students become eligible for practical skills and written tests that CFCC Fire Training holds each month for firefighter certification.
 
CFCC Fire Training’s core business is still instructor-led classes at the center in Hampstead and on location at fire departments in Pender and New Hanover counties. It also holds three annual seminars that attract hundreds of fire service personnel from across the state.
 
Of course, computer-based training is ideally delivered in conjunction with live instructor training – either as an introduction to the material or as a review, but Porter said it also provides an alternative for those firefighters who either can’t attend classes or just prefer computer-based learning.
 
 “A lot of paid firefighters work 24-hour shifts,” Porter said, “and their schedules will not accommodate taking classes on a normal schedule. So these people can come into the learning lab and take classes when it’s open and when it’s convenient for them and get their firefighter certification.”
 
The computer training also helps fill the training gap for volunteer firefighters. Some of North Carolina’s smaller, rural departments either don’t have training available or only offer “in-house” training that doesn’t meet the OSFM’s rigorous standards. Firefighters sometime travel for several hours to the Hampstead or Myrtle Grove centers to get training they can’t get at home.
  
CFCC gives students a copy of the practical skills required by the certification test and, if they can’t attend a live class, encourages them to get hands-on training with a firefighter at home who is proficient in the skills.
 
Experienced firefighters often use the computer courses for efficient refresher training. Many of them already have a good foundation of the knowledge and skills required and don’t really need to sit in a classroom, Porter said.
 
All students benefit from self-paced instruction. ATS computer-based training is designed to enable firefighters to watch each section as many – or as few -- times as they need to absorb the information. Each section tests students on the learning objectives and, if answered incorrectly, loops them back to the information they need to review. 
 
Currently, the OSFM requires a state-certified instructor to be on site with students for all certification training, which limits computer training center hours, but Porter feels that a system to overcome that requirement won’t be too far in the future.  She notes that other fire departments that offer ATS training might consider sending firefighters to CFCC labs, where they could zip through the courses they’ve studied and advance more quickly to certification.
 
Computer-based training is not for everyone, Porter notes. Some old-school firefighters and instructors resist the concept.” I don’t think we’ll ever have everybody believing that computer training is a good thing, but it’s what the world is going to, so we can either do it or get left behind. Someone is going to do it, and as long as the Office of State Fire Marshal reviews the program and says they support it, it’s something we’ll be doing.”
 
The computer training center in Hampstead is currently open Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.; the center at Myrtle Grove Volunteer Fire Department is open Mondays and Thursdays from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.  For more information, e-mail Porter at bporter@cfcc.edu.
  
###
 
****************************************************