By Augie Frost
The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK)
Copyright 2007 The Oklahoman, All Rights Reserved
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Trent Williams was nervous but eager when he arrived at Oklahoma City Fire Station 31-B about 5:30 a.m. on a recent Monday.
It was his first day on the job, and a single thought kept running through his head: “How many things am I going to mess up today?”
Williams and 24 other fire recruits graduated March 9 from the Oklahoma City fire academy, an intensive 16-week course on firefighting and rescue training. Recruits learned to haul hoses and extinguish blazes while at the same time enduring exhausting physical training.
Williams, 22, apparently learned his lessons well. By 4 p.m. on the first day of his job, he’d made few, if any, mistakes.
“It has been awesome,” he said. “It’s been a little overwhelming, but it has gone really well. There’s a lot of stuff to go over, and a lot to learn.”
And even though the academy is finished, there’s a long way to go.
“Training was mentally and physically draining,” Williams said. “It was like boot camp. It’s a good feeling now that it is over.”
Only 57 of the 1,362 applicants for the previous academy were accepted. Thirty-two of them graduated on May 12.
The second academy of 2006 started Nov. 17 with a group of 25 who had no idea what kind of dedication it takes to become a firefighter. For 16 weeks, the academy was their life, Maj. Troy Dycus said during the graduation.
“We got there at 6 a.m., and we left at 6 p.m.,” Williams said.
Recruits were taught in the classroom, the weight room and in simulated environments, Dycus said. They read more than 1,000 pages of textbook materials and took 16 tests.
In the beginning, recruits were running about a mile and a half at a time, Williams said. By the end, they were up to six miles. They were also up to about 300 push-ups a day and 400 sit-ups.
They practiced raising and lowering ladders and pulling hose lines more than 25 times, and they climbed more than 108 stories while wearing fire equipment, Dycus said.
Recruits practiced vehicle crash rescues, live flashover fire training, ventilation techniques and hazardous materials classes.
Williams was one of 10 in the most recent class to get his assignment at graduation. Some reported to their stations on Tuesday and Wednesday. The other 15 graduates will get their assignments in the coming weeks.
“Oh yeah, I’m ready to go,” Williams said.