Photo provided The Columbus Fire Department used grant money for unified command training in May.
Columbus Board of Public Works and Safety approved the Columbus Fire Department’s use of grant funds for training completed in early May.
Fire department representatives indicated that they plan to give updates to the board on future grants going forward as well.
Although no administrative action was technically required by the board, the group voted as a means of showing they endorsed how the money was used.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awarded CFD an assistance to firefighter grant in August 2022 for $63,195 for unified command training.
“Unified command occurs when we have an incident of larger scale with multiple agencies coming together, making sure that everyone is on the same page,” CFD Captain and Training Officer Ben Spencer explained to the board.
A unified command would be used if the worst should happen during a large-scale event, but is also used generally at city events such as the Mill Race Marathon and Ethnic Expo.
Firefighter Inspiration Readiness & Education, LLC came to Columbus to conduct the training from May 6 to May 9, where attendees learned about incident command structure, incident typing and various tactical considerations, Spencer told the board.
One of the trainers, Spencer said, had been a part of the incident command structure set up following the 2017 shooting in Las Vegas where 60 people were killed and more than 800 people were wounded during a Jason Aldean concert.
Training activities and manuals were specifically tailored to Columbus and Bartholomew County and Spencer said CFD plans to pass what they learned on to future employees.
The group ended the training with a tabletop exercise mimicking the 2008 flood, according to Spencer.
Firefighters said 21 people from six different agencies attended, including those from Bartholomew County Emergency Management, the Columbus Police Department, Columbus Township Fire & Rescue, the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office, the city and CFD.
The cost of the training was $55,000 and was paid for out of the fire department’s general budget. An additional $7,493 for employee backfill has been paid for through CFD’s personnel category, Spencer said.
