{"id":239409,"date":"2016-10-31T06:06:33","date_gmt":"2016-10-30T20:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=239409"},"modified":"2016-10-31T06:06:33","modified_gmt":"2016-10-30T20:06:33","slug":"mitchell-keynotes-fire-chiefs-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mitchell-keynotes-fire-chiefs-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitchell keynotes fire chiefs training"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"U.S.<\/a>
U.S. Fire Administrator-Chief Ernest Mitchell Jr., left, and Western Pacific Islands Association of Fire Chiefs president Stanley C. Torres listen to one of the speakers at Wednesday\u2019s kickoff of the three-day 5th Annual WPIAFC\u2019s training forum at Fiesta Resort and Spa\u2019s Hibiscus Hall. (Ferdie de la Torre)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

U.S. Fire Administrator Chief Ernest Mitchell Jr. served as the keynote speaker during the kickoff of the three-day 5th Annual Western Pacific Islands Association of Fire Chiefs Training Forum held Wednesday last week at the Fiesta Resort and Spa Saipan\u2019s Hibiscus Hall. <\/p>\n

Mitchell talked largely about the theme of the conference, which is the use of technology especially in training.<\/p>\n

Mitchell urged fire chiefs and firefighters to take advantage of all the lessons learned from everyone and incorporate that into their future responses.<\/p>\n

He underscored the importance of using data and in making evidence-based decisions. <\/p>\n

In an interview, Mitchell said it\u2019s about learning from experiences, from the training, taking advantage of the new technology out there, improving in preparing to respond to fires, increasing firefighters\u2019 safety, and reducing the number of preventable firefighters\u2019 deaths and injuries. <\/p>\n

Mitchell, who is based in Washington, D.C., noted that association members are really improving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like their attitude toward improving and getting better, working together, collaborating, and sharing with each other so they make everybody better and stronger in their response,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Mitchell said his message to firefighters in the Pacific Islands is to keep doing what they are doing\u2014follow the leadership of the chiefs and the officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I learned coming up as a firefighter is in order to be a good leader you first have to be a good follower,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Mitchell said the folks involved here are very much dedicated to serving their communities and saving peoples\u2019 lives, and protecting their own firefighters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so I think that\u2019s just something that all of them have to remember at all times, just keep working together,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Association president Stanley C. Torres said they are celebrating five years of continuous camaraderie and fellowship among fire services in the Pacific\u2014the CNMI, Guam, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. <\/p>\n

Torres said the uniqueness about their conference is they are able to bring top fire service leaders to come and speak to them and mentor them.<\/p>\n

Torres said Mitchell is the fire chief for the U.S. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the military he is kind of like our general. He is here. We are honored to have him here talking about safety and training,\u201d Torres said. <\/p>\n

He said they are also here to honor and recognize Federal Aviation Administration\u2019s Airports District Office Honolulu manager Ronnie V. Simpson.<\/p>\n

Torres said Simpson\u2019s help for the past 15 to 20 years has improved the service of airports throughout Micronesia\u2014Guam, the CNMI, Palau, FSM, and Marshall Islands.<\/p>\n

Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services Secretary Claudio K. Norita said the International Association of Fire Chiefs in the U.S. mainland has divisions all over. The Western Division just opened up a new subdivision, the Western Pacific Islands Association of Fire Chiefs, which encompasses the CNMI, Guam, Palau, FSM, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a seat in the international fire division board of directors,\u201d Norita said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second time for the CNMI to host the annual association training. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe association itself is bringing all of our fire chiefs in Micronesia together, discussing about issues that affect our fire service, new training, new equipment, national protocols, how we fight fire, how we deal with fire, and of course leadership and so forth,\u201d Norita said.<\/p>\n

He said fire equipment vendors and federal partners from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Federal Aviation Administration, and Coast Guard are also participating in the training. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Fire Administrator Chief Ernest Mitchell Jr. served as the keynote speaker during the kickoff…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":239410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,137,14025,319],"class_list":["post-239409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-marshall-islands","tag-micronesia-guam","tag-palau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}