{"id":148065,"date":"2024-04-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=148065"},"modified":"2024-04-11T16:43:15","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T16:43:15","slug":"usag-italy-fire-department-prepares-for-return-of-on-post-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=148065","title":{"rendered":"USAG Italy fire department prepares for return of on-post housing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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VICENZA, ITALY\u2014 With housing construction at U.S. Army Garrison Italy in full swing, the garrison\u2019s fire department is bolstering staff and increasing training to prepare for when families once again live on post.<\/p>\n

This quarter, they\u2019ve onboarded eight new firefighters and have been putting their team through a rigorous, four-month academic and physical training process, said Derek Sardinta, the department\u2019s assistant fire chief.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cover everything from hazardous material to medical, fire protection and technical rescue,\u201d Sardinta said. \u201cWe are the one-stop-shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2021, no families have lived on post. The Army is funding a large-scale, multi-year construction project to rebuild family housing, to include 428 homes on Villaggio and 50 apartments on Caserma Ederle. Once built, firefighters must be ready to support the community.<\/p>\n

Each firefighter completes 120 hours of training per calendar year, works 12 to<\/p>\n

48-hour shifts, and must comply with Italian and American regulations. Within the last year, the department has gained over 200 certifications, including Hazmat Awareness and Operations, Fire Fighter I and II, and High Fire Risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery month focuses on a different subject,\u201d Sardinta said. \u201cIn January, we focused on confined space and technical rescue. This month, it\u2019s hazardous materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

The robust training program yielded exemplary results recently as the department has exceeded Department of Defense requirements. According to the DoD standards, each station must have a complete response time of seven minutes or less 90 percent of the time. The department is currently exceeding this goal at a 94 percent success rate, Sardinta said.<\/p>\n

Things have surely changed in recent years.<\/p>\n

In the 1990s, the garrison had an all-Italian response team off-site from the military installations. Today, it\u2019s a full-service, DoD-regulated team. Kenneth Helgerson, the garrison\u2019s former fire chief, took pride in the strides that his team has made in training during his tenure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular jurisdiction has gone through an evolution,\u201d said Helgerson, who departed the department in February 2024.<\/p>\n

The department currently consists of four fire stations, two at Camp Darby, one at Caserma Ederle, and one at Caserma Del Din. They are now looking to expand to five stations, including a facility on Villaggio, to provide increased protection for Soldiers and families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VICENZA, ITALY\u2014 With housing construction at U.S. Army Garrison Italy in full swing, the garrison\u2019s fire department is bolstering staff and increasing training to prepare for when families once again live on post. This quarter, they\u2019ve onboarded eight new firefighters and have been putting their team through a rigorous, four-month academic and physical training process, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148067,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=148065"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148068,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148065\/revisions\/148068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/148067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=148065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=148065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=148065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}