A DeKalb assistant fire chief attended classes at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Md., from Feb. 2 to 13 to improve his managerial skills.

Bruce Harrison, assistant chief of operations, applied for the master’s level executive fire officer program to develop his managerial skills for the department. He can take the credits he earns over the next four years and apply them toward a master’s degree.

“The main goal is not to prepare you for a job you want; it is to train you to be more proficient at the job you have,” Harrison said.

The training was not intended to be a response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but the effects of terrorism and its impact in training are impossible to ignore, he said.

“It filters through everything we do,” Harrison said.

Harrison attended class with about 25 other students from departments across the country. He said it was a great opportunity to network with other fire personnel and compare notes on managing situations at their own departments.

Harrison spent about eight hours a day in class and received reading assignments as homework. Harrison will submit an applied research project in six months, he said.

He hasn’t chosen a topic for his 30-to-40-page paper yet but is exploring taking data on the department’s performance, such as response times, and putting it into a visual format to make it clearer and more useful.

Harrison isn’t the first at the department to attend the executive fire officer program.

Chief Lanny Russell and Captain Peter Polarek, also of the DeKalb Fire Department, are graduates of the program as well.

The department tries to send three or four firefighters a year to different training programs at the national level, Harrison said.

Firefighter Ryan Conden said he already noticed the department benefitting from Harrison’s training. Each day Harrison shares a little of what he has learned, he said.

Harrison will attend the next course in the series in late spring or early summer 2005.