Copyright 2006 The Daily Oklahoman
By MELISSA MARCHEL
The Daily Oklahoman
Imagine if your surgeon never had a chance to practice on cadavers or your 16-year-old received his license before he’d driven a car. That is the dilemma for budding firefighters as drought grips Oklahoma.
Career technology centers training firefighters cannot use some of their equipment because of the state burn ban. Even in a controlled situation, the conditions are too risky.
“All it would take is one ember,” said Clarence Fortney, director of adult training and development at Great Plains Technology Center in Lawton.
So for now, the center’s four-story drill tower with its ground floor and second level burn rooms sits untorched.
It’s a similar story at the Eastern Oklahoma County Technology Center in Choctaw, which has a six-story building complete with attic crawl space and an elevator shaft.
“Right now, we are following the same rules as everyone else,” said Kathleen Kennedy, public relations coordinator.
The training is a cooperative effort between Oklahoma State University Fire Service Training and about 10 technology centers including ones in Enid, Ada and Durant. The centers provide basic or entry-level training and emergency management training.
For students enrolled in the night class at Eastern Oklahoma, which started Jan. 9., practicing with real fire will begin in late April or May.
“Hopefully, by then we’ll have rain,” said instructor Kenny Wilson, who is a firefighter with the Choctaw Fire Department.
The situation preventing centers from using equipment has raised the need for more students and classes. Career technology centers across the state are seeing increased enrollment in their firefighter training courses.
At Great Plains Technology Center, 414 students are enrolled for training courses and classes through June, Fortney said. Center instructors in 2005 taught 374 students.
In Choctaw, Kennedy said the center has gotten more calls about firefighter training in the past week than any other week since it was first offered.
Most students say they’ve wanted to be firefighters their entire lives, not just because of recent wildfires.
“It’s a very honorable and respectable job. I wanted my family to be proud,” said Landon Hays, 25 of Clinton. “(The wildfires) just made me want to get along quicker.”