By Christine M. Arceneaux
The Advocate
HUSSER, La. — As flames ignited in an old abandoned home, junior firefighter Eric Vernon grabbed a 150-foot hose in one hand and supported his partner’s back with the other.
“I was taking some pressure off of her so she wouldn’t fall,” Vernon said.
As the two battled the blaze, junior firefighter Bailey Reycraft controlled the flow of water to two hoses connected to a fire truck.
“It’s an adrenaline rush,” Reycraft said just before the training exercise that would test the skill, agility and performance of the Husser Fire Department’s junior firefighters.
The Husser Fire Department volunteers have embraced the young men and women who call the department home and have trained youth as young as 15 years old.
“I thought they should have bumped the age part down so I could have taken it (the first-responder course) sooner,” said Simon Graziano, who became the youngest first-responder in the state at age 15.
“At 15 years old, I didn’t think he was ready,” said volunteer firefighter Jim Bailey, a Loranger High School teacher and Future Farmers of America adviser.
Looking back, Bailey realized he was wrong.
“They’re just as important as any fireman here,” said Fire Chief Dale Vernon as the group gathered in the Husser Fire Department before the practice drill. “They have worked hard to be good at what they do. They’ve earned the right to wear the (uniform) shirt. They’ve earned the right to wear the patches.”
Now 17 years old, Graziano plans to become a paramedic and said that his training with the Fire Department has helped.
“I feel like this is what I was meant to do,” Graziano said.
All of the department’s junior firefighters - Ethan Dunn, Anthony Fox, Graziano, Ryan Pierre, Reycraft and Vernon -joined the organization for different reasons; all of them are committed to their job. Many of them agree that it’s a job they will continue into adulthood.
“The chicks dig it,” Vernon said, snickering as he offered his reason for joining the group.
“It’s a lot more exciting to stitch people up then to change their blankets,” Reycraft said as her reason for taking up the craft instead of becoming a hospital volunteer.
To prepare for the junior firefighter role, the teens participate in a host of training sessions like the controlled burn held in midsummer on Galatis Road.
Mitch Fontenot insists the junior firefighter program doesn’t just benefit the youth, but helps educate new firefighters, too.
“She teaches me,” said rookie firefighter Mitch Fontenot of Reycraft.
“Most of what I’ve learned, I’ve learned from them,” Fontenot added.
Bailey said the youth also bring enthusiasm, balance and energy to the department.
“Even the jobs we hate the most, they like,” Bailey said. “If I get out my hose for hose training, then I’m just wet and miserable. They like getting wet. It’s fun.”
For Reycraft, the job means taking an interest in her community and becoming part of a team.
“We’re all family and you have to be able to count on one another,” said Bailey, who instituted the junior firefighter program more than a decade ago and modeled it after the Boy Scouts Explorer Program.
The idea originally was to give the children of firefighters a way to feel like they were part of the group, Bailey said.
“It gave us something to do with them,” he said. “It was fellowship with their brother or sister firefighters.”
The group is now open to youngsters not related to a firefighter, as well.
Today, approximately six of the volunteer firefighters began their careers as junior firefighters.
Former junior firefighter Henry Kyzar said the experience changed his life forever. He hopes the lessons these youth learn will carry them through life.
“Being a junior firefighter is an experience you’re not going to get anywhere else at that age,” Kyzar said. “You’re not going to get the relationship with the community and the experience to help people.”
“They’re doing a valuable community service,” Dale Vernon added. “What they’re doing has actual, tangible value in the community. They’re doing something that can save a life.”
Currently, the department has six junior firefighters but others, like Ethan Dunn, who just recently joined the department, are waiting to sign up.
“A bunch of kids are asking about joining,” said Kyzar, who served as a junior firefighter from 1998 to 1999. “My son is 10 and he can tell you to the hour when he can become one.”
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