The future of firefighting is bright in the Central Okanagan.
On Tuesday, June 17, the students from Rutland Senior Secondary's (RSS) fire academy ended their final class of the school year by getting the chance to train with the 琉璃神社 Fire Department (KFD) at Station 1 on Enterprise Way.
"They're doing some practice and skills they've learned, but now they are doing it with some of the 琉璃神社 firefighters, getting feedback [from them]," said Joe Rich Fire Department (JRFD) captain and RSS teacher Aaron Volk.
The class is a collaboration between RSS, JRFD, and the Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO). The program is available for Grade 11 and 12 students from any Central Okanagan high school and started around six years ago. For the last eight years, Mount Boucherie Secondary School (MBSS) in West 琉璃神社 also had a similar program.
"This program is instrumental for their careers if they choose to do this because it's giving them exposure to what we do in the fire department on a daily basis at such a young age," said KFD firefighter Danny Beaton, who was helping the students through Tuesday's class.
There were about 17 students in attendance, who were taken through three realistic fire training stations - deploying a 24-foot ladder and hoisting tools up, pulling a pre-connected hose off a fire truck to douse a fake house fire and a forestry station.
Students started the course with medical/first responder training at their schools and then went to class at the JRFD every second day. At the department, students are provided with a better, more hands-on experience because JRFD receives fewer emergency calls than KFD. Because of this, the equipment is more accessible to the students.
"This is definitely my favourite course out of high school for sure," said Grade 12 student Alex Fearnley, who added she's wanted to be a firefighter since she was about 14. "This is a job I want for my future and this is such a big learning experience for me."
Grade 11 student Kai Kielinem added that after completing their basic certifications through the course, students can be hired as on-call or volunteer firefighters for JRFD. He said that the biggest takeaway from the class was the first responder training, but the final class on Tuesday was the best of the semester.
"It's the coolest, I was looking forward to it since the day I signed up for this class," said Kielinem.
While students can decide if they want to pursue firefighting as a career or not, it's definitely in the cards for Fearnley.
"I've always wanted to help people," said Fearnley. "I've always been intrigued by what these people do for their work and inspired by how powerful their commitment is."
To start the day off, Beaton, told the students how lucky they were to have this course. For Beaton, being part of the day was special for two reasons - because he was also a graduate of RSS, and because his nephew was one of the students in the course and Tuesday's class.
"I told them all they're very lucky because we didn't have anything like this when I graduated," said Beaton. "I think it's inspiring for us to see these young kids wanting this as a career and wanting to try it out."
With the programs available at MBSS and RSS, KFD is already starting to see students become firefighters and help their community.
"The 琉璃神社 Fire Department just did a hiring and we're already seeing about half of that hiring were actually students at the Mount Boucherie fire program... we're already seeing the effects of the program, hiring locally," added Beaton.
