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Area volunteer completes Executive Fire Officer Program
5/13/2008 12:05 AM   1 comment(s) on this story E-mail this story to a friend

By KAREN DAILY Staff writer

Four years and several research papers later, and Don Turno is one of only a handful of firefighters in the state to have completed the national Executive Fire Officer Program.

A career firefighter, Turno has been battling blazes since the late 1980s, when he started as a volunteer with Aiken Public Safety in 1989.

Since then the Aiken native has received his Associate of Science in fire protection, Bachelor of Science in fire protection management, Master in Business Administration and most recently graduated from the Executive Fire Officer Program (EFOP).

Offered through The National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Md., the EFOP program includes both in-class training and graduate-level research projects.

Turno said he spent several weeks in Maryland each year, completing the in-class assignments only to return to Aiken and begin working on his papers.

In the first year, the class works on team developing and consensus decision making.

The second year focuses on identifying risks and saving lives and property.

Third-year students tackle the Federal Response Plan and the Integrated Emergency Management System.

Turno said the research papers took months.

After he was done, he said he headed back to Maryland for another class.

In his final year, Turno took an Executive Leadership class, tying together the three previous years of research and classwork.

Turno, who works as a senior fire protection engineer with Westinghouse Savannah River, also oversees the county's hazmat team.

He said he expects to use much of what he learned locally.

"This was one of the greatest professional experiences of my life," he said. "To spend four years exchanging ideas with leaders in the fire and emergency services is the opportunity of a lifetime."

When most people think of The National Fire Academy, he said, they think of fire training, but Turno explained it's much more complicated than that, adding the high level of academics involved.

Turno serves as a volunteer with the Aiken County Sheriff's Office as a reserve deputy and with Aiken Public Safety as a training officer.

Contact Karen Daily at kdaily@aikenstandard.com





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  1 comment(s) on this story

Congrads :  5/13/2008

Congrads Chief Turno it is refreshing to know Aiken Co has people of your callabor in such positions.

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