By Jesse Olivarez
The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK)
Copyright 2006 The Oklahoman, All Rights Reserved
Matt Grice is all smiles these days, and for good reason.
With each passing day, the 25-year old Harrah resident is one day closer to achieving his lifelong goal of becoming a firefighter.
Grice is halfway through Eastern Oklahoma County Technology Center’s new fire academy. The academy, which began in September, is a 16-week course in which students pursuing careers as firefighters learn the basic skills the profession requires.
For Grice, the last two months have been nothing short of amazing.
“This is what I’ve always wanted to do,” he said. “I’ve been living my dream.”
Brian Arnold, one of the class’ main instructors and an Oklahoma City firefighter, said the course is designed to give students a good taste of what they will encounter as a firefighter. Everything from the proper way to write up a fire report to the best way to handle a chemical spill is taught to the students.
Arnold said the three things students learn the most about are basic firefighting techniques, emergency medical skills and physical fitness. All three skill sets, he said, must be mastered before a student completes the course.
“They have to have these skills down cold,” he said. “An untold number of lives will depend on it.”
The course itself is broken down into three segments: classroom work, physical fitness and labs. Each day begins at 7 a.m. with students lined up and prepared for a torturous regime of stair running, distance running and strength training.
After about an hour and half, the students are given a short break and go to class for about two hours.
After an hour lunch break, they go to the practice field and spend the rest of the afternoon learning such things as quickly removing hoses from pumper trucks, or the safest way to rescue an injured person trapped inside a vehicle.
By 6 p.m., the students are exhausted and ready to go home, Arnold said. He said the class days are designed to be long so students can get a feel for the 24-hour shifts firefighters are typically asked to work.
“There are some days when you’ll be tired, look at the clock and realize your relief won’t be coming in until 7 a.m. the next morning,” said Arnold, a 20-year veteran. “On those days when a call comes in, no matter how tired you are, you have to get up and give it your all.”
Besides helping students achieve their dreams, the academy is also helping some cities by producing highly trained firefighters.
Eric Reynolds, director of business and industry services at the tech center, said the academy is a joint venture between the technology center and several metro area cities.
Each city is asked to provide firefighters to act as trainers for the students. The cities also volunteer the use of their equipment.
In exchange for the donated man hours and equipment, the cities get the first crack at hiring academy graduates.
For smaller departments like Bethany, the academy is a windfall.
Bethany Battalion Chief Shaum Jennings said the academy helps his department by eliminating the expense it would normally have to absorb to train a new recruit.
Jennings said in years past, to save money, the city would only pay for the students to get the bare basics and teach other skills to recruits on the job.
In the academy, students pay for their schooling and are ready to work immediately after graduating.
For Jennings, the academy has no drawbacks.
“It saves all the cities involved money so I think it is a really good endeavor,” he said. “It seems to help everybody.”