Kootenai County Fire & Rescue’s Training Division is driven to providing progressive and pertinent training for all of our personnel based on Local and National Fire Service Standards, local community hazards and needs, and the Department’s continued commitment to provide the community capable, knowledgeable, and equipped members.
Kootenai County Fire & Rescue personnel recorded 17943.42 hours of training in 2022. This training includes but isn’t limited to Structure Fire Training, High Rise Fire Fighting, Wildland Firefighting, Vehicle Extrication and fires, Rope Rescue & High Angle Rescue, confined space rescue, trench rescue, Emergency Medicine training from the basic EMT level to advanced Paramedicine & Critical Care Transport certification, water rescue, hazardous materials, Incident Command System training, Incident Safety Officer training, Mass Casualty Training, Rescue Task Force, and fire prevention training.
2022 saw tremendous growth in our area in regards to population and consequently supportive development to accommodate this growth, but more specifically, our Department also had growth which is designed to support our community. Our Department participated in many drills and exercises with outside agencies for larger scale incidents. These types of trainings are typically attended by Law Enforcement, Military, Hospital and Health Care agencies as well as other area Fire Agencies. We continue to develop our Training Campus which allows for more qualitative training opportunities for our members and those who utilize our campus. We added 6 more firefighters to our rank and file following a 10 week fire academy ending mid-February 2023, and have secured funding to build storage buildings and a remote outdoor classroom for training evolutions on the training grounds.
The Training Division has partnered with our area emergency professionals to foster a great working relationship and work toward a common goal of protecting the public. These include Coeur d’ Alene Fire Department, Northern Lakes Fire Department, Spokane Valley Fire Department, Hauser Lake Fire Protection, Mica Kidd Island Fire District, East Side Fire District, Post Falls Police Department, Kootenai County Sheriff, Idaho State Patrol, Coeur d’ Alene Police and all the participating members of the Rescue Task Force, the National Guard, the Idaho Office of Emergency Management, and Kootenai County Local Emergency Planning Committee to name a few. We are grateful for these relationships and partners and look forward to working with them in the future.