Elmore County Firefighters
Association
Elmore
County is the home of Millbrook, Wetumpka and Tallassee
combination paid-volunteer fire departments and 17 other
volunteer-only fire departments. Elmore County
is adjacent to Montgomery County, home of our beautiful
state capital. Being located so close to Alabama’s
rapidly growing capital has meant that Elmore County is
also experiencing rapid growth.
In the early
1990s, the Elmore County Firefighters Association,
comprised of the county’s 20 fire departments, began a
push to increase firefighter training in the county’s
fire departments. In the late 90s, the citizens of
Elmore County voted for a service fee to support the
fire service across the county. In the original
legislation, a percentage of this service fee was marked
for countywide training. Chief Jake Strickland of the
Wetumpka Fire Department worked with the Industrial
Development Board of Wetumpka to acquire property at no
charge to the Elmore County Firefighters Association on
which to locate a new countywide training center. Using
the new service fees for backing, the firefighters’
association built a 5000-square-foot training center.
Currently, the center contains a 70-student classroom, a
40-person conference room, a reference library, offices,
a kitchen and two offices housing the Alabama Forestry
Commission for Elmore County. For training
opportunities, please visit our
TRAINING PAGE
The
training center was completed in late 2001, and a
Volunteer Fire Fighter class was held almost
immediately. Since that time, not only have hundreds of
fire fighters received training ranging from Volunteer
Fire Fighter and Fire Fighter II to Mass Casualty
Incidents and Planning but local EMS law enforcement,
emergency management and other first responders have
also regularly trained at the center. The training
center has been a great boon to all first responders
across the county.
In
addition to the training center, the county association
instituted a countywide Hazardous Material Team made up
of personnel from the county’s fire departments. The
association is also the proud recipient of a grant of
over $300,000 for recruitment and retention programs
designed to increase involvement and provide incentives
for volunteering.
There are
approximately 490 fire fighters in Elmore County. So far
this year, Elmore County has had over three hundred
students enrolled in Alabama Fire College programs
either in the county or at the AFC. Please contact your
local fire department for opportunities in your
community. You can also contact the Elmore County
Firefighters Association at (334) 514-9242. We are
always looking for men and women who are willing to
volunteer and help improve your community. We also have
an Explorer program suited for young men and women.
You can take a look at
some pictures taken during some of our training classes
by visiting out picture page.
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