Chief Matthew Belsito, Sutton - Chairman Chief Robert Parsons, Spencer - Vice-Chair
Chief Edward Knopf, Charlton - Treasurer Chief Paul Normandin, Southbridge - Secretary
Massachusetts Fire District 7 Mutual Aid Association, Inc.
From 1998 to 2015 Massachusetts Fire District 7 ran its own Call Firefighter Recruit Training Program. For 17 years departments from both in and outside the district sent call recruits to the 330 hour training program that trained new firefighters to the level of Firefighter I/II.
In the early 2000’s, District 7 was the only fire district in the state that was running its own training program for call and volunteer firefighters. Training Committee members, Stephen Coleman and William Locke presented an overview of our Recruit Training Program and its success at the Massachusetts Fire Fighting Academy. In attendance were members of the Massachusetts Fire Training Council, State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan, Deputy Fire Marshal Tom Leonard, Director of the Mass Fire Academy William Hollick and many other administrators and training officers from across the state. The result of that presentation was the creation of the Department of Fire Services Call and Volunteer Firefighter Training Program.
District 7 was proud to be a leader in recruit training in Massachusetts during that time. During the last District 7 Recruit Graduation held at the David Prouty High School in Spencer on June 16, 2015, State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan acknowledged the work of Fire District 7 in his remarks to the recruits. He said that District 7 paved the way for the successful call/volunteer recruit training program that is currently being run by the Department of Services.