Pour la version en français, veuillez appuyer ici. 

Dear Members,

On behalf of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs (CAFC), it is our pleasure today to share with you the Canadian Emergency Response Flammable Liquids Incidents in Transport Training Program Curriculum.

This material was developed by a multi-stakeholder group in response to one of the recommendations made after the tragedy at Lac Mégantic to provide better training materials.  

Over the past year, CAFC has been asked to “hold” this material so that it would remain easily and freely accessible to the fire sector. As such, it is available free of charge on the CAFC website.

That said, it is essential to CAFC that all members understand the context in which this material is being shared before downloading it.   

If you intend to download or use these materials, please read the following carefully.

The CERFLIT program has three levels within it.

• LEVEL I is an awareness training course. It is and has been available for some time on the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers website. It is an online course. It is suitable for all fire departments. 

• LEVEL II is a curriculum that can be developed into a course for departments that meet the criteria. It should not be attempted by departments who are not sufficiently equipped. It involves both an online component and a live fire component. Due to risk issues, it is essential that fire departments that want to download the materials, do so with full understanding of the competency requirements for this training. It is the view of the CAFC Dangerous Goods Committee, that “a little information is a dangerous thing”, so the advice is to only make online training available for level II if there is an adequate and appropriate course developed form level II training available. In other words, the online training should not be taken outside without intention to complete the practical component.  The minimum criteria for organizations deemed able to develop and provide the live fire training was stated by the development team as follows:

• “The fire service training facility/facilities must meet the minimum standards outlined in National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1402 – Standard on Facilities for Fire Training and Associated Props (2019 edition) or an equivalent approved by the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ).”
• “Trained and competent instructors should include where possible any road or rail Dangerous Goods Officers (DGO), response contractors, emergency response assistance plan (ERAP) responders or any other agency that may respond to the AHJ area in an emergency. This may include road transportation companies that have a response contractor available for the area:”.

LEVEL III is also curriculum material. The curricula is only intended for agencies that are authorized to operate hazmat technician or equivalent industry response programs. Additional criteria are available here.  

We ask for your maximum attention and judgment for safety in making these available. CAFC will not be positioned to assess your organization. Use of these materials is at the risk of the department.

We hope that this material balances the ability to preserve the curriculum developed by the individuals called together by Transport Canada after Lac Mégantic, while respecting the risk issues that exist in training.

Access the CERFLIT training materials here.