Institution of Fire EngineersIFE CHAIRMAN APPOINTED TO IFSTA BOARD!
In July this year, John Judd, newly appointed Chairman of IFE, was delighted to be appointed to the Executive Board of the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA). As a member of their Board, John will be consulted on policy issues, projects, new and revised training materials and technical committee final validation reports, and will be involved in maintaining external relationships with other organisations.
John served as IFE's International President in 2003-04. Formerly an ACFO with responsibility for fire safety and fire investigation at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, he served on a temporary assignment as Assistant Commisioner for Community Safety with London Fire Brigade from 2005-06, where he led the community safety policy team and was responsible for overseeing many of the policies and initiatives aimed at making London a safer city. Now retired from the Fire and Rescue Service, John remains very active with the IFE and has led the National Fire Safety Charity for Children since 2000, helping to educate children about fire safety and providing support to children suffering from severe burns.
About IFSTAIFSTA, a not-for-profit organisation attached to Oklahoma State University, was established in 1934. Its mission is to identify areas of need for training materials and foster the development and validation of training materials for the fire service and related areas. IFSTA is an association of fire service personnel who are dedicated to upgrading fire fighting techniques and safety through training.
The IFSTA Validation Conference is held each July. Committees of technical experts meet and work at the conference addressing the current standards of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and other standards-making groups as they apply to IFSTA-validated manuals. These technical experts review all manual drafts and verify that the contents are valid. Committee members are all volunteers who participate because of a commitment to the fire service and its future through training.
Fire Protection Publications (FPP), a department of Oklahoma State University, is the headquarters for IFSTA. FPP's primary function is to publish and disseminate training manuals as proposed and validated by IFSTA. Fire Protection Publications researches, acquires, produces, and markets high-quality learning and teaching manuals that complement the IFSTA-validated manuals.
IFE agreement with IFSTA
In 2005, IFE entered into an agreement with IFSTA/FPP to jointly produce and publish materials and for IFE to become a distributor/ liaison of new and existing materials. The first joint publication, "Urban Search and Rescue in Collapsed Structures", has proved very popular with UK Fire and Rescue Services and the next one, relating to Mass Decontamination Strategies and Tactics, will be published in the near future. The IFSTA/FPP publications now marketed by IFE have been carefully selected to provide a range of reading/training material which is both interesting and useful to the UK and international fire services.
IFSTA and IFE publications are available on-line from IFE - see the website www.ife.org.uk for details - or contact T:+44(0)1608 812507, F:+44(0)1608 812581, E: borders@ife.org.uk .