Matthews Completes Fire Officer 3 Certification

Lt. Jason Matthews, of the Parkersburg Fire Department, recently completed 60 hours of instruction for certification as Fire Officer 3. The class was held during WV ESCAPE. The annual Emergency Services Conference is held annually at Pipestem State Park and consists of dozens of courses related to fire and EMS training.

The objective of the Fire Officer 3 course is to develop the chief officer for the administrative and operational challenges of the fire service in the 21st century. Upon successful completion of the course, the student is trained to function as a participant in the day-to-day administrative operations of the fire department.

Major topics covered in the course are: program orientation; ethics; establishing a partnership with the community; budgetary process, budgeting and auditing practices, budget development, and fiscal planning; managing human resources; inspections and pre-incident planning for specific occupancies; risk management and safety programs; managing personnel evaluations, assessments centers, and accountability; and emergency services delivery, incident planning and multi-agency involvement.