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I know it sounds funny but we had a discussion at our fire meeting last week and they was telling me that as a training/safety officer I am NOT an officer. All neighboring departments that have training officers are officers right after the asst chief. I am the first training officer they have had in years. Please keep in mind we are only a volunteer department with about 15 firefighters that run about 120 to 150 calls a year.

Please clear there weird question up for me. Thanks and be safe.

to add,  it depends on the way your co's by-laws are written.  training officer's usually are not line officers.  they are usually people who set up your co's training sessions, and carry them out.  your line officer's usually consist of chief's, capt's, and lt's.  and your occasional safety officer.  now, in my opinion, a training officer should be a line officer.  they are, i.m.o., supposed to be the more experienced guys who are supposed to teach the ff's.  but it doesn't always work that way. 

very, very true

Like the other brothers have stated, it depends on how your department is set up. Your department may have an Sop or policy that describes the position of Training Officer and to what rank the TO is to be. In my department I am the training/safety officer and hold the rank of Battalion Chief. I am considered a staff officer so if needed I can be a IC or serve whatever function is needed at the time. I am third in our chain of command right behind the Chief and the Deputy Chief. Hope this clears up some of the questions.

For years our Training Officer was just a Firefighter whom the Chief felt very confident in his abilities.  This firefighter also had the respect of both those above and below him in rank and seniority.  He made sure he was up on the latest innovations, and methods, as well as researching them to see whether or not that might work for our Dept., or how we could modify it to work for us.  Like was said earlier. a TO doesn't necessarily have a Rank.  We have had our training officer be a firefighter, Engineer, Lieutenant, Capt., & Dep. Chief.  We have also had a training committee.  Currently, we have the Chief as the Senior Training Officer, Myself as A training officer.  He and I work together to come up with a master plan, then I put the stuff together (outlines, Presentations, HOT training.  I then pass this info onto the Company Officers, who are then responsible to do the training with thier companies, house, and shift.  I do my house, shift and our paid-on-call people.  The paid on call people can also come in and do the training with either of the 2 other shifts.

I think that you don't need the rank to be the TO or to be an effective TO.  You definitely have to have the desire to teach others and do it well. so that they can get home safely at the end of every shift.

Stay Safe Brothers!

In our department the training officer is not a command officer.  Ninety percent of the time it is the line officers that assume the role of training officer.  But Safety officer by all means is a command officer, that is the one person that can overide a chiefs call and shut the scene down if he or she feels neccesary.