In a matter of days, the Lethbridge Fire Department will get a youthful injection of talent. Their latest recruiting class has gone through the riggers and is almost ready to get out in the field. Assistant Fire Training Officer Les Hilliard is responsible for the unit and can remember back to the days of his first fire.
“I was a rookie at the fire department and I had absolutely no training,” Hilliard said. “I was scared beyond belief, they were telling me to grab something and I had no idea what it was.”
It was years ago as volunteer firefighter in a small community, and Hilliard knows his group will be more prepared than he was.
“Yeah, that won’t happen with these guys,” Hilliard said. “They’re well trained when they hit the ground running.”
The 11 trainees are nearing the end of a 12-week program that’s giving them skills they need. The group will also serve as paramedics, as all Lethbridge’s firefighters do.
“You could be on the ambulance doing a call, a medical response, then on the same token you clear from that call and now you’re going to a structure fire,” Lethbridge Fire and EMS Trainee David Skilling said. “So you really have to be up on your skills, I think more than anybody else in this industry.”
It’s a lot to know, but many trainees are paramedics before entering the program, and all have some prior medical training. The group primarily trains out of Fire Station Number 4, where they can tackle simulated fires. Though they can’t add the element of human danger in training, they can emulate just about everything else.
“I’ve thrown stuff at them that some of our seasoned guys would start to fall, fail at,” Hilliard said. “And these guys came through each time, really, really proud of them.”
The new trainees will graduate on June 20, with a ceremony at Lethbridge Fire Station Number 1.
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