Lavonia Firefighter Wins Georgia Training Officer of the Year

A Lavonia firefighter has been named Training Officer of the Year by the Georgia Association of Fire Chiefs.

At their regular meeting last week, the Lavonia City Council heard from Lavonia Fire Chief Scott O’Barr, who during his annual report to the City, announced that Shane Bentley had received that prestigous award.

O’Barr noted Bentley was selected from a large statewide pool of nominees.

“At the first of the year at the State level, the Georgia Association of Fire Chiefs takes nominations from all over the State for several awards, including from the City of Atlanta, including from Gwinett County,” O’Barr explained. “And all the nominations from all the paid departments and all the volunteer departments are put into this pool of applications. This year, I put in a nomination for Training Officer of the Year from the City of Lavonia Fire Department – again, a volunteer fire department. And your training officer for the City of Lavonia, Shane Bentley, was chosen at the State level, for Training Officer of the Year.”

Every year, the Lavonia Fire Department sponsors a free fire training weekend for any and all firefighters in the Northeast Georgia area at their training center on Lucille St.

Opened in 2016, the fire training facility allows firefighters to get their required hours of annual training in without having to travel to the State training center in Forsyth, Georgia.

O’Barr noted the training consists of a list of classes firefighters can take and allows any firefighter to receive up to 130 hours of ongoing training, free of charge.

The Georgia Association of Fire Chiefs is comprised of career, combination, and volunteer fire Chiefs with a common goal of bettering the fire service and its service delivery to the citizens of Georgia.

Currently, the Association represents over 700 chief fire officers in Georgia.