Fire prevention is equally as important as fire fighting

Spokane County Fire District 3 and the city of Cheney co-hosted a 40-hour week long Fire Inspector 1 class last week (July 29–Aug. 2) that incorporated 29 firefighters from 12 different agencies within the state of Washington and as far as Whidbey Island.

These 29 students had one of the best classes around! They had a variety of different occupancy classifications from Eastern Washington University academic facilities to the newly constructed Amazon warehouse that they were able to walk through and gain knowledge of different fire systems and construction variations.

This Fire Inspector I class provided an entry level perspective into the fire prevention world of the fire service. The course is designed to expound upon and enhance those basic core construction practices that firefighters generally receive going through a fire academy.

Additionally, the course edifies firefighters on those common fire code violations that many fire inspectors frequently encounter and how to take observed violations and validate them back to the fire codes, safety standards or locally adopted ordinances or procedures. Lastly, this course imparts the importance of verbal and written correspondence and how critical positive public interaction must be in order to influence compliance with a favorable safety mindset.

Fire inspectors help minimize those things that could potentially add grave risk to both citizens and firefighters. The way I see it is that fire departments are an insurance policy for the citizens; whereas, fire inspectors are an insurance policy for the firefighters. All firefighters, regardless if you are full-time or a volunteer, start to become cynical towards the repeat fire alarm activations or nuisance calls; especially when you spring out of bed in the middle of the night for something that was not a true emergency.

From code enforcement to public education, the fire prevention leg of the industry is generally regarded as the “non-glamorous” side of what we do. Kicking down doors and walking away with soot stains on our bunkers is why many of us gravitate to the job. At some point though, we realize that preventing fires and ensuring safe practices are being followed become a cultural legacy; one that can be molded and endured.

Fire Chief Tom Jenkins

City of Cheney