The Ontario Fire College is coming to Timmins.
Northern College will be hosting the programs in its newly built Integrated Emergency Services Complex. College President Fred Gibbons says “localizing this program will allow students to train in the region’s conditions.” Northern says students will also be using the new complex’s Advanced Disaster Management Simulator system, which is a virtual environment and scenario training system.
President Gibbons says the courses are scheduled to start in the spring. “What we will be doing in the interim is either meeting with, discussing or conducting surveys with the various fire services to best understand what their most immediate training needs are and prioritize the offering of some of these courses as we go forward.”
This will be the first designated Ontario Fire College in the north. Gibbons says it will help cut down on costs for the northern fire departments because they won’t have to send people to Gravenhurst for training. “If the customized training is best done on a weekend we can do that or if it can be done in the evening we can do that,” Gibbons adds. “I just think it’s going to be able to serve Northeastern Ontario much more effectively than what the fire college has been able to do up until this time.”