UPDATED WITH STORY: MCFD moves ahead with EMT training

Graduation is a time of transition.

And when 11 firefighters celebrated the completion of emergency medical technician training Wednesday at the Morgan City Fire Department, they were celebrating more than a step on their professional journeys. The ceremony was part of an evolution in firefighting.

If all 11 go on to pass the National Registry Exam, the Morgan City department will have 11 certified EMTs among its force of 26 line firefighters plus administrators. Last month, firefighter Clifton Percle was honored for becoming the department’s first paramedic, a status that requires hundreds of hours of additional training.

The days when the local undertaker’s hearse was also the local ambulance are long gone.

“This all started because people were dying in the field,” Chief Alvin Cockerham said Wednesday. “We have good response times. We still have to have trained people. It’s been working out pretty well.”

St. Mary Parish, like many parishes and counties across southern Louisiana and neighboring states, is served by Acadian Ambulance, the Lafayette-based private provider.
Cockerham said Acadian does a good job.

Acadian’s response times across the parish range from 11 to 15 minutes, President David Hanagriff told the Parish Council last week.

But in Morgan City, firefighters will often be on the scene more quickly. And EMTs can take basic lifesaving steps until an ambulance arrives or until a patient can be placed in a physician’s care.

Assistant Chief John MacDougall was one of the graduates of the MCFD’s EMT training. He was first certified in 1995 in upstate New York and took the 2023 course to update his skills.

His first training consisted of 120 hours. The firefighters who graduated Wednesday went through 186 hours of training by Blance Bankston of the State Fire Marshal’s Office, which has assumed operation of the Fire and Emergency Training Academy that had been run by LSU.

“I would say the knowledge and course curriculum have doubled,” MacDougall said.

The training also included ambulance ride-alongs in East Baton Rouge Parish, where the service is run by the parish government. The service has a good reputation and, MacDougall said, a shift might involve eight to 15 call-outs. The trainees don’t have to wait around for a call.

“First, you get certified,” MacDougall said. “And now you have more tools in your toolbox to help your neighbors, your family, your friends, your fellow firefighters.”

Training the firefighters to be EMTs isn’t cheap.

Like other first-responder agencies, the Morgan City Fire Department has struggled recently to hire and retain recruits. The department doesn’t have enough firefighters to pull some away from a regular shift for training, so the classes meant paying overtime.

The total cost for the 15 firefighters who originally signed up for the course was estimated at $45,000.

But instructor Bankston came to Morgan City for the classes, saving travel time and expense for the department. Federal COVID aid helped, Cockerham said, and the Louisiana Workforce Commission will reimburse the $1,200-per-firefighter tuition.

Davin Felton and Austin Morgan were co-valedictorians in this graduating class. Felton said he took the training “just to provide the best protection for the community.”

The firefighters received their certificates at midday Wednesday at the main fire station on Victor II Boulevard. They celebrated with a jambalaya lunch attended by Mayor Lee Dragna and Chief Administrative Officer Charlie Solar.

“The department didn’t need to do this,” Dragna told the firefighters, “but I think everybody sees the need for it.

“I’m proud of you.”