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O.C.G.A. § 25-4-7 — Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council - Functions and powers | Georgia Code
O.C.G.A. § 25-4-7 (2018) Copy Cite Official Site Syfertize CourtListener Scholar Amendments

TITLE 25 FIRE PROTECTION AND SAFETY

Section 4. Firefighter Standards and Training, 25-4-1 through 25-4-31.

ARTICLE 1 GENERAL PROVISIONS

25-4-7. Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council - Functions and powers.

The council is vested with the following functions and powers:

  1. To promulgate rules and regulations for the administration of the council;
  2. To provide rules of procedure for its internal management and control;
  3. To enter into contracts or do such things as may be necessary and incidental to the administration of its authority pursuant to this chapter;
  4. To establish uniform minimum standards for the employment and training of full-time, part-time, or volunteer firefighters, airport firefighters, fire and life safety educators, fire inspectors, fire investigators, and other such firefighting service professionals as determined by the council including qualifications, certifications, recertifications, decertifications, and probations for certified individuals and suspensions for noncertified individuals, and requirements, which are consistent with this chapter;
  5. To establish minimum curriculum requirements for schools operated by or for any employing agency for the specific purpose of training firefighter recruits or full-time, part-time, or volunteer firefighters, airport firefighters, fire and life safety educators, fire inspectors, and fire investigators;
  6. To approve institutions and facilities for school operation by or for any employing agency for the specific purpose of training firefighters and firefighter recruits, including airport firefighters;
  7. To make or support studies on any aspect of fire-fighting education and training or recruitment;
  8. To make recommendations concerning any matter within its purview;
  9. To establish basic firefighter training requirements for full-time, part-time, contract, and volunteer firefighters, including airport firefighters;
  10. To certify any person satisfactorily complying with the training program established in accordance with paragraph (9) of this Code section and the qualifications for employment covered in this chapter; and
  11. To issue a certificate to any person who has received training in another state or who has received training as a federal firefighter by the United States government, when the council has determined that the training was at least equivalent to that required by the council for approved firefighter education and training programs in this state and when the person has satisfactorily complied with all other requirements of this chapter.

(Ga. L. 1971, p. 693, § 6; Ga. L. 2003, p. 888, § 6; Ga. L. 2005, p. 619, § 2/SB 308; Ga. L. 2008, p. 243, § 4/SB 414; Ga. L. 2016, p. 64, § 3/HB 727.)

The 2016 amendment, effective April 26, 2016, substituted "fire inspectors, fire investigators, and other such firefighting service professionals as determined by the council" for "fire inspectors, and fire investigators," in the middle of paragraph (4); and inserted "contract," in paragraph (9).

Editor's notes.

- Ga. L. 2008, p. 243, § 1/SB 414, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: "This Act shall be known and may be cited as the '2008 Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council Act.'"

Law reviews.

- For article on the 2016 amendment of this Code section, see 33 Georgia St. U.L. Rev. 55 (2016).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council has authority to establish qualifications and requirements, including curriculum, for firefighters and employing agencies, and any waiver of curriculum requirements or new categories of certification can be authorized only by amendment of existing regulations or promulgation of new ones. 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 77-44.

Minimum requirements for inmate firefighters.

- Inmate firefighters should be considered volunteer firefighters as defined in O.C.G.A. § 25-4-3 and not a separate category. The Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council has the authority to set minimum requirements for volunteer firefighters, the category to which inmates belong, serving as firefighters on fire departments as defined in O.C.G.A. § 25-3-21 and to establish and modify by rule and regulation minimum requirements for such fire departments generally, regardless of whether the departments are staffed solely or partially with inmate firefighters. 2012 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 12-4.

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 2 Am. Jur. 2d, Administrative Law, § 48 et seq.

C.J.S.

- 73 C.J.S., Public Administrative Law and Procedure, § 42 et seq.

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This Georgia Code resource is curated by the attorney maintaining this site, a personal injury and workers' compensation attorney admitted in Georgia (State Bar of Georgia No. 881027, since 2006) and Florida. For legal consultation, call 904-383-7448.