Fire Service Training Bureau
Greeting from the Fire Service Training Bureau here at Camp Dodge in Johnston. We are excited to announce that the 100th Annual Statewide Fire School is just around the corner at The Meadows Event Center at Prairie Meadows Jan. 25–26, 2025. This year marks a major milestone, and we would love you to join the celebration. We have lined up a host of national speakers along with some of Iowa’s top instructors.
To commemorate this special year, we are offering a reduced all weekend rate of $100, in honor of our 100th anniversary. As an additional bonus, the first 500 attendees to arrive on Saturday will receive a commemorative challenge coin to mark the occasion.
The event kicks off on Jan. 25 at 0800 with a two-hour opening ceremony featuring keynote speaker Charleston South Carolina Assistant Chief David Griffin. Chief Griffin was the driver of the first engine to respond to the 2007 Sofa Super Store fire that claimed the lives of nine of his fellow firefighters. He is a “can’t miss” speaker!
After the ceremony, there will be a 30-minute break before classes begin, with a dedicated vendor showcase from 16:30 to 18:00. We have secured a special room block rate of $150 per night, plus applicable taxes. We cannot wait to celebrate this historic event with you! The brochure and registration link can be found on our website at https://dps.iowa.gov/
media/1927/download?inline or check out our Facebook or Instagram pages. Please do make a point of following at least one of those pages. We do post a lot of class announcements and updates to those pages.
This year we took delivery of two new mobile driving simulators funded by the FY21 AFG awards. These have been added to our fleet of mobile training props and hopefully you will see them in your area soon. Our new training tower is currently in construction and it should be turned over to us in early 2025.
One final note is that we received a FY23 AFG award to fund a new learning management system (LMS) here at the bureau. We are in the initial stages of planning this system, but it will bring multiple improvements in how we communicate training and classes and also track your training and certification.
Thanks and stay safe out there…
Jess Dunn,
Bureau Chief SFM-FSTB and Don Minks,
Special Programs Manager SFM-FSTB