Rivco Fire Department Unveils Firefighter Academy
CAL FIRE/Riverside County Fire Department Chief John Hawkins is unveiling the first CAL FIRE Firefighter II Academy in Riverside County today at the Ben Clark Training Center in Riverside. The Training Center is located at 3423 Davis Street in Riverside.
The new facility is a major milestone for the CAL FIRE Training Program in Riverside County because of the multi-leveled training classes offered in fire protection, leadership, resource management and professional development. CAL FIRE's previous primary training academy site is located in Ione, CA, approximately 35 miles southeast of Sacramento.
The CAL FIRE Firefighter II Academy in Riverside County lends itself to the multitude of specialized training and development courses presently offered to Public Safety personnel at the Ben Clark Training Center. Firefighter II candidates will greatly benefit from this localized training because it meets the academic and physical training requirements of CAL FIRE/Riverside Unit Firefighters.
The duration of each Firefighter II academy is six weeks, or 270 hours. The class of 40 students lives at the training center dormitory for the duration of the academy. As a pre-requisite, each candidate must complete 132 hours of basic fire training. The academy day begins at 7:00 a.m., ends at 5:00 p.m., and includes various evening courses.
Candidates must pass multiple written and manipulative skills tests with 80 percent accuracy in
several subjects in order to participate in the Academy Graduation Ceremony on May 23, 2008 and
receive Firefighter II certification. Areas in which candidates are tested include ladders, hose,
fire behavior, rescue, rope systems, ventilation, high-rise training and auto extrication. Several
of the courses are graded on the pass/fail system.