Kansas Fire & Rescue Training Institute hosts first international class since 2015
LAWRENCE — Kansas Fire and Rescue Training Institute (KFRTI), assisted by KU International Short Programs, recently hosted its first international class in a decade.
Four Taiwanese firefighters — Yusheng Chen and Mengche Hsieh from the Pingtung Taiwan County Fire Department, and Chih-hung Chen and Shih-Ping Wu from the Fire Department of the Interior Ministry — visited Kansas on Oct. 5 to earn their Structural Collapse Awareness Operations Technician Certification.
This eight-day, 80-hour certification gives students the knowledge and skills to operate on structural collapse scenes and perform rescues. Made up primarily of fieldwork, students spend hours crawling through tunnels, drilling through concrete and removing rubble from KFRTI’s classroom, aptly named “Crisis City” in Salina.
The visitors learned alongside Kansas firefighters and members of the Kansas Search and Rescue Task Force Teams seeking the same certification.
“Just seeing the interaction of our people and them and realizing there really is no difference. Cover the patch up; it doesn't matter where you are from, firefighters are firefighters,” said Ken Fowler, KFRTI assistant director.
Due to the number of earthquakes in Taiwan, there is a need for greater structural collapse expertise. The overseas team, while certified in Taiwan, came to KFRTI to gain their International Fire Services Accreditation Congress (IFSAC) certification and third-party validation. KFRTI is one of five entities in the United States that can offer this level of certification.
“The national Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team in Taiwan is moving towards adopting National Fire Protection Association standards, and they want to get their program IFSAC accredited,” Fowler said.
“We teach the whole subject just like you teach, but because of the limitations of time, we can only teach basic techniques,” Wu said.
On Oct. 15, all four students gained their certification.
KFRTI has been invited to travel to Taiwan to observe their Structural Collapse certification course in April 2027 to assist them in becoming IFSAC certified.
In June 2027, KFRTI is set to return to Taiwan to support their Rope Rescue Awareness Operations Technician Certification and Confined Space Awareness Operations Technician Certification for similar assistance.