LSU fire training facility renamed after pioneer

Credited with making the LSU Fire and Emergency Training Institute the go-to agency for fire, medical and rescue training, Carrol Herring is now lending his name to the facility. On Monday, FETI renamed itself the Carrol L. Herring Fire and Emergency Training Institute in recognition of the leadership he brought to the facility until his second retirement in 2005. A Varnado native, Carrol Herring was hired as a coordinator to the newly formed LSU Firemen Training program on Oct. 1, 1963. Prior to accepting the position, Herring spent 15 years in the Baton Rouge Fire Department. Shortly after his hiring, Herring toured the state to determine fire service training needs and created a standard training class that was widely used and quickly adopted by the Louisiana fire service. In 1969, Herring became the director of LSU Firemen Training and began to mold the program into one of the nation’s premier fire training organizations. “For most everybody here, the name Carol L. Herring has been associated with the fire training program,” Herring’s son Joe said Monday. “Today is the day that we permanently attach that name to this program.” Herring resigned from his LSU post in 1981, when he was appointed state Fire Marshal by Gov. Dave Treen. He served as Fire Marshal until his retirement from the state of Louisiana in 1990. In 1999, Herring was called back into service to lead the LSU facility, which is located three miles from the main campus, off Nicholson Drive.