ELMSDALE: Four students in the coop program at their respective schools recently finished their placement with Enfield fire.
Ryan Nearing; Tyler Jones; and Aiden Bezanson, all from Lockview High School; and Nick Deveau, a co-op student at Halifax West High, completed their placement demonstrating what they had learned during exercises before The Laker News and family at the Elmsdale Fire training facility.
The students spent 90 hours each with Enfield as part of their schools program. They were under the guidance of Enfield fire’s Tyler Sigurdson and Jeff Goodwin.
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Several of the students said taking part in the program has given them a bit better of an idea of firefighting and it may be a career they chose for their future.
“It was really fun, we learned a lot of things such as how to break through cars to save people; conduct searches,” Bezanson said. “It was a great learning experience.”
Jones said he would recommend taking the placement to any of his friends if they were given the opportunity.
“If I could I would definitely come back,” he said. ‘I don’t know what I want to do for my future career, but I might consider volunteering or doing firefighting s my career.
“I’ve always been interested in helping and my career choices have been around first responding.”
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Nearing said it was “the most awesome 90 hours I’ve done with anything.”
“I can’t wait to head out to school for firefighting,” he added. “Family has been doing stuff like this, and my brother is a firefighter.”
Deveau said he was lucky to get the placement. His family has a first responder background.
“I have been lucky to get this training, experience and to see this training and what its all about,” he said. “It has definitely helped me decide on firefighting as a career.”
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Sigurdson spoke about what it was like having the students during the 90 hours of placement.
“It was a great opportunity to get to work with youth in Halifax and Fall River,” he said. “They are all very smart kids and are eager to learn in this profession.”
He said the fire department is looking forward to helping with that new generation of firefighters.
“I’m really looking forward to more coop placements with us,” he said.
During the 90 hours, the students learned basics firehouse stuff, then vehicle extrication and gear familiarization before they got into the burn building culminating in week nine using all they learned in their grand finale.
Sigurdson said it bodes well to see how passionate the students are on possibly making firefighting a career.
“I’m so excited with how they treated this program. They treated it just like they were at the Fire School, they worked hard they asked lots of questions,” he said. “I think if they had another opportunity to do another 90 hours they would jump all over it.”
