The International Association of Fire Chiefs’ (IAFC) Volunteer & Combination Officers Section (VCOS), in partnership with Vector Solutions, the leading provider of computer-based training and operational management applications for public safety agencies, are proud to announce Volunteer Training Coordinator James Hedrick of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department (Virginia) as the recipient of the 2021 VCOS Training Officer Recognition Award. The award honors training officers for exemplary conduct and dedication to their fire department’s training program.
Chief Norvin Collins, VCOS Board Member and Training Officer Recognition Award Committee Member stated, “The VCOS Board and Award Committee are again pleased to partner with Vector Solutions for the annual Training Officer Recognition Award. During the past year, all response agencies were challenged with meeting ongoing community demand, in addition to COVID-19. This demand put additional stressors on the training of our responders. The Award Committee and Vector Solutions were very pleased at the quality and number of submissions for this award. The VCOS Board of Directors would like to offer their congratulations to this year’s recipient, James Hedrick.”
Hedrick has been responsible for coordinating and developing all operational training for the volunteer members of the 12 partner volunteer fire departments that are part of Fairfax County Fire and Rescue, which is 400 volunteer members strong. He has also been responsible for managing an adjunct instructor corps of more than 40 part-time instructors and scheduling all basic training classes including introductory training, EMT basic, Firefighter (I & II as a package), EVOC, Driver Operator, recertification classes, required recurrent training and new skills training. He is a retired career battalion chief from Fairfax County and now a civilian, so he has been able to leverage his experience as a command officer to train volunteers sitting for the lieutenant’s exam and other leadership positions and is able to teach any class including 1403 burns.
When COVID-19 started, things dramatically changed at the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Academy. Volunteer Training Coordinator Hedrick immediately took several steps to adjust the training of volunteers to allow for the continuation of training including:
- The move of all classes possible to Zoom to allow for continued training.
- Utilization of the Vector Solutions platform, formerly known as TargetSolutions, for testing, as able, per class.
- Adjusting classes that required in-person activity such as CPR by moving most of it to online learning and creating a drive-through process in the high bay to allow members to pull in, do their skills, and drive out, minimizing exposure to all involved.
- Created a modularized process for completing the state requirements for EMT.
- Transferred many smaller evaluation tasks to the volunteer chiefs at the station level.
- Moved forward with an online tablet-based training and testing process for EMT-B that is accepted by the Commonwealth of Virginia to allow for safer EMT training.
Through his efforts, Fairfax County graduated more than 70 new EMTs, on-boarded more than 150 new members, held monthly recertification training such as CPR and offered suppression training and EVOC all with reduced capacity because of COVID-19.
“Jim’s impact on the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department has been immense; he is a consummate leader – promoting, developing and encouraging the next level of firefighters and leaders, all while quietly sitting in the background and not wanting any spotlight on him,” said Shawn Stokes, Chairman of the Fairfax County Volunteer Fire Commission. “His impact and legacy can be seen every day in the number of members, volunteer and career, in the right front seat of our rigs making a