Are you a manager who’s responsible for coordinating fire safety training in your workplace? If so, then it’s important that you know about the new fire safety system that was introduced by the State Fire Marshal’s office in September 2022. This system will be replacing the old one, and there are some key changes that you need to be aware of. In this blog post, we’ll outline the most important things that you need to know about the new fire safety system. So read on to find out more!

Individual User IDs

The biggest difference is that each individual who completes Fire Safety training will have their own id/password for the new system. In order to create their user id, each individual has to have a unique email address.   

While most people have an email, we realize that not everyone does. We don’t recommend using a manager or peer’s email because once that email is used, it can never be used again in the system. So if you tell someone to use your email, then later you take Fire Safety, it won’t let you use it for your own certificate.   

The instructor will have a solution for those who don’t have emails. They can provide temporary emails that will allow us to create an id for them. Just ask your instructor if you have questions.

Obtaining Certificates

So how do you get certificates for your staff?   

EMAIL #1

The system automatically generates an email with the certificate attached. The easiest way to get the certificate is to ask your team members to forward it to you. This is generated by the system and is ONLY sent to the individual, not the manager, so our instructors encourage people to forward this to their manager right away.

EMAIL #2

First Response will send a second email that goes to both the student and the manager. The second email will include their user id, password and directions for printing the certificate. Once you receive this, you will need to log in using their id and password. Detailed instructions are available here.

The Certificates

If you have anyone who has completed Fire Safety in the last month or two, you may have already noticed that the certificates look different. They are orange and white and say “Initial Caregiver Course”. Originally, they didn’t mention Fire Safety on the certificate, but based on the feedback of numerous managers like you, we were able to convince the state to add “Fire and Life Safety” to the certificate as well.

You may find the dates on the certificates a little confusing. The date is based on the day the person created their id in the system, not necessarily the day they completed training. So if they created an ID on November 1, but didn’t actually complete the class until November 30, the certificate will show November 1. We encourage people to wait until they actually take the class and to let us create the ID for you so that the dates will match up.

Facility Affiliation

When the user id is created, the user “affiliates” themselves with the facility that they work for. If you would like to see a list of people who are affiliated with your facility, go to https://frcpr.us/fslookup. I find it easiest to search by address. If you enter just your street number and the first few characters of your street, you can usually locate your facility.

Keep in mind that just because a person shows up on this screen, it does not necessarily mean they have completed fire safety training. It is possible to create an id in the system without completing the class. However, it should give you a pretty good idea of who has attended training.

We have been told that the Fire Marshals will be using this lookup before your inspections. If you have 50 employees and are only showing 5 in the system, it may be a red flag to them.

Administrative Time

On average, it takes about 5-10 minutes per person to go through the process of creating a user ID.   

These days we’re all so busy with work and life that when an instructor tells us there’s an hour’s worth of computer time needed just for creating system ids – you can feel how much this sounds like wasted moments. As a manager, you know that wasted time not only equals wasted money; it impacts your ability to have adequate staffing to care for your residents and children.

But at First Response Training, we believe classroom hours should be focused on education NOT administration! We have streamlined the process so that we can do the administration for you. When we teach a class, either virtual or in-person, we create the ids for everyone and email them out to both the individual and the manager as soon as the certificate is available.

The Old System

It is our understanding that the old portal will remain available until 2025.  For students who attended training prior to September 2022, they will be able to access their certificate there.

Need to Get Your Team Fire Safety Certified?

We have in person and online options to get Fire Safety certified in Georgia. If you would like to host a Fire Safety class at your facility, click here. If you would like to join a class or sign up your team for an online or in person class, click here. The online class is an instructor-led class via zoom that meets all of the same requirements as our in-person training.