Berwyn, PA - Chief officers and senior firefighters from the Berwyn Fire Company, Paoli Fire Company, and Newtown Square Fire Company recently completed the Blue Card training program. This included independent online training and an in-person practical session held on March 11-12, 2017 at the Berwyn Fire Company.

The Blue Card training program provides fire departments with a training and certification system that defines the best standard command practices for common, local, everyday strategic, and tactical emergency operations conducted on National Incident Management System (NIMS) Type 4 and Type 5 events. This training and certification program produces incident commanders that make better decisions that will potentially eliminate the lethal and/or costly mistakes that cause injury, death, and unnecessary fire losses in the local response area.

Each student was evaluated in the role of the initial arriving Incident Commander (Engine Company - Officer) and as the second arriving Incident Commander (Battalion Chief - Response Chief) during the evaluation process. The students filled both roles for each of the programs 5 basic building types: residential, multi-unit residential, strip malls, commercial buildings, and big box structures. These occupancies represent over 90% of the structural fires that firefighters respond to and operate on.

The in-person portion of the program was taught by Blue Card Instructors Mark Smith (Assistant Chief, Vandenburg Fire Department, CA), Joe Williamson (Battalion Chief, Haltom City Fire Rescue, TX), and Greg Timinsky (Fire Chief, Star Fire Protection District, ID).

Berwyn Chief Eamon Brazunas, Paoli Chief Andrea Testa, Newtown Square Chief Douglas Everlof, Newtown Square Assistant Chief Brian McNeill, Jr., Berwyn Firefighter/EMT Tom Hardon, Berwyn Lieutentant Evan Brazunas, and Berwyn Firefighter/EMR Mary Ellen Toscani successfully completed all of the required simulation evaluations and are now officially certified as Blue Card Incident Commanders.

To learn more about Blue Card you can visit their website at https://www.BShifter.com