The Regional Emergency Training Center (RETC) is a state-of-the-art, environmentally safe site that serves firefighters, emergency medical technicians and other public safety personnel and houses the Camden County Fire Academy and Camden County Police Academy. Camden County College’s Division of Continuing Education administers both the RETC and the academies, offering classroom and hands-on instruction in the most extensive and contemporary array of first-responder courses available.
The RETC offers mandatory and supplementary training for firefighters, EMTs and other personnel. Classes cover topics as they relate to firefighting – including prevention, protection, building construction, confined spaces, chemistry, rail operations, extinguishers, tactics, inspection, investigation, instruction, flammable liquids, hazardous materials, hydraulic technology, burn building operations, lockout-tagout, self-contained breathing apparatuses and sprinkler system operations – as well as EMT studies. Both the “Firefighter I” and “Firefighter II” training programs offered at the RETC hold Pro Board certification, which means that they underwent an intensive two-year evaluation to be accredited by the National Board on Fire Service Professional Qualifications. College credits are now offered for several of these courses.
Academic studies offered at the RETC include career certificate programs in fire suppression or fire administration and associate in applied science degree programs in fire science technology and fire science technology administration. Courses completed at the RETC also provide the opportunity – through agreements maintained with University of Maryland University College, Holy Family University, New Jersey City University and Thomas Edison State College – to transfer for baccalaureate studies in fire science. Several continuing education courses and corporate training programs are also routinely offered at the RETC.
The Camden County Police Academy is certified by the New Jersey Police Training Commission to offer basic police officer training, basic county corrections officer training, juvenile detention officer training and special law enforcement officer training. The Academy also offers an alternative route program as well as in-service training and special-subject courses.
The RETC’s amenities include a burn building, a smoke house, a self-contained breathing apparatus maze, confined-space simulators and various props. On-site classrooms, meeting spaces and a 160-seat auditorium, which may be rented by private- and public-sector organizations for their own conference and training needs, supplement these modern facilities with computing, remote learning, Wi-Fi and catering capabilities.
The RETC is located on the Health and Executive Campus at Lakeland, which is at 420 Woodbury-Turnersville Road in Gloucester Township – just a few minutes from the College’s main campus in Blackwood. For additional information on the Camden County Fire Academy, call (856) 374-4863 or visit www.camdencc.edu/ce. For more information regarding the Camden County Police Academy, call (856) 374-4950 or visit www.camdencc.edu/policeacademy For RETC rental information, call (856) 374-4911.
The Camden County Regional Emergency Training Center is also available to private and public sector organizations for conference, training, and meeting facility needs.
Click Here for course offerings and course registration
A sample of the courses offered:
- Confined Space Awareness Training
- Confined Space Entry Training
- Live Burn Building Operations
- Incipient Firefighting Course
- Fire Extinguisher Training
- Self Contained Breathing Apparatus Course
- Self Contained Breathing Apparatus Refresher
- Hazardous Materials Level I and II
- Lock-Out Tag-Out Training
- Basic Fire Prevention Skills
- Flammable Liquid Fire Fighting
- Structural Fire Brigade Course
- Sprinkler System Operations
- First Response EXPO Transit Bus Operations
- Emergency Responder Rail Operations
- Foam and On-Board Technology
Regional Emergency Training Center
Health and Executive Campus at Lakeland
420 Woodbury-Turnersville Road
Blackwood, New Jersey 08012
(856) 374-4863