Leslie Pederson's Page

Residence.

Bellingham, Washington

Department:

Whatcom County Fire District 4

Title/rank:

Assistant Chief

Years of public service:

23

Agency structure:

Combination fire department

Top issues in your department:

The usual, retention. We have come up with a successful way to keep people (part-time paid) until they are hired, which is to offer a AA degree in Fire Science through our department, with tuition assistance. We also have a strong training program, we train everyday and every night. With a special subject drill on Mondays, such as physician lectures and specialized subjects.

Professional Qualifications:

Firefighter 1 & 2, Officer 1, Hazardous Materials Technician, High Angle and Confined space Rope rescue tech., Instructor 2, ISO, worked as a firefighter in a oil refinery so I have NFPA 1081, 1 and 2 (Incident Command) Propane and flammable liquid fire certifications.

Topics you provide training for:

Instructor 1, HazMat Awareness and Operations, Propane Emergencies, Advanced fire behavior, EMS (BLS & PHTLS) instructor. Firefighter1, 2 and Officer 1.

Areas of expertise:

Hazardous Materials I would say is my area of expertise, I am also the training coordinator and on- call Incident response for the regional Hazardous Materials team. Due to the variety of experiences and training. I have completed the Dodd/Beals Fire Academy up to IC (When it was in Reno), and LSU Firefighter Academy.

Bio:

Started as a Public Safety Dispatcher, joined the department as a volunteer in 1985, worked in the oil industry on the emergency response team until 2002, when I became the director of an interagency training department that comprised of 13 fire districts, so I was in charge of volunteer and career firefighter training. I then went paid in 2003, in 2006 I was hired as a Division Chief of training in my current department, and as of 1/1/08 I was promoted to Assistant Chief.

Web site:

http://www.wcfd4.org