You are a lieutenant in a small career fire depart-ment located in the southern United States. Your department's total staffing is fifty-two person-nel working out of two fire stations. There is no fire training academy or training staff available on a full-time basis. The battalion chief attempts to provide training on an unscheduled basis, but other duties normally interrupt this effort. The state fire training academy is over 100 miles from your department's location. You have a desire to acquire additional knowl-edge involving how to be a better manager and also how to maintain firefighter safety at a higher level. How would you go about accomplishing this and developing a plan that would make prog-ress toward these objectives? Describe the profes-sional development opportunities that you would recommend