Firefighter-driven agricultural safety program to visit Florida, Feb. 26

The Rural Firefighters Delivering Agriculture Safety and Health (RF-DASH) program will conduct another training, Thursday, Feb. 26, in Wimauma, Fla. This is the first training to be hosted in Florida and the first training in the southeastern United States.

“The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is excited to host this training,” said Assistant Professor and RF-DASH training host Serap Gorucu, Ph.D. “This training will be particularly helpful for Extension professionals, firefighters, farmers, emergency responders and other agricultural community stakeholders.”

Registration deadline is Feb. 19. There is no cost. The training will include a classroom portion as well as a hands-on component on a local farm. Classroom training will take place at the University of Florida Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, 14625 CR 672, Wimauma.

RF-DASH is a program of the National Farm Medicine Center, Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, Marshfield, Wis. In its 10th year, RF-DASH has extended to 18 states and five Canadian provinces. The program has directly trained more than 300 first responders, nearly half in 2025 alone with funding support from CHS Foundation. Many of these individuals have gone on to train members of their own and neighboring departments.

Instructors will be Jakob Hanschu, National Farm Medicine Center, and Jim Volkosh, a veteran of the fire service and fire protection industry. Volkosh served two terms as chief of the Middleport (N.Y.) Fire Department and has been a fire instructor for both the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control, and the New York Academy of Fire Science. As Niagara County Fire Coordinator and Director of Emergency Services, Volkosh led a 48-person team to Ground Zero after the September 11 attacks.

The training is organized into five modules that can contribute to alignment with National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards, specifically NFPA 1300 on community risk assessment and reduction and NFPA 1670 on technical search and rescue training.

For more information, visit the event web page or email rfdash@marshfieldresearch.org.

To inquire about firefighter training or implementing the program on your farm or ranch, contact rfdash@marshfieldresearch.org. Visit www.rfdash.org for more information.

An RF-DASH online course is also available.