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A
lot of people want to be a firefighter,
and it is not just your 5-year-old or
the 19- and 20-year-olds who usually
apply. The Wake Forest Fire Department
has one man who left a good career at
the age of 40 to go through the training
and become a fireman.
Sixty people recently
applied for the eight openings at the
department, two current openings on the
paid staff and six more that will be
added before the end of the year to
begin to staff the new ladder truck. “We
are hoping to hire an additional nine
personnel in July of 2007 to afford us
five personnel per shift on the ladder
truck,” Chief Jerry Swift said. The
department uses three 24-hour shifts: on
duty for 24 hours, off for 48.
Friday several of the
applicants were being tested for
agility. Six firemen had moved the
trucks out of the bays and set up the
test course there and outside.
One of the applicants was a
young man who said he was from Virginia.
The firemen never asked his name or his
hometown, calling him “Virginia” because
it became clear early on he would not
complete the course in the required 10
minutes and 20 seconds even though they
were encouraging him.
He wore a 75-pound vest plus
25 pounds in shoulder weights,
simulating the turnout equipment and the
hose a fireman would wear and carry to
climb the stairs in a building, and he
was told to step up on and down from a
10-inch box without stopping or holding
onto anything for 90 steps.
Fireman Jeremy Blake said to
watch because the candidate would have
wobbly legs after he completed this
first test.
When he finished the
“climb,” the 25-pound weights on his
shoulders were removed, and Virginia
went outside where 200 feet of hose had
been laid out in S-curves. He had to
pull the hose 100 feet, first straight
and then around an obstacle, to a 3-foot
by 3-foot square marked on the asphalt.
Virginia had to kneel and pull 50 feet
of the hose into the square.
Then it was back to a table
holding two 45-pound weights. Virginia
had to pick up each one and put it on
the ground as if he were unloading two
chainsaws from a truck. He carried them
75 feet to the obstacle and back to the
table to put the weights on the ground,
then on the table one by one.
Next Virginia went to a
24-foot extension ladder at the side of
the building. He had to raise the ladder
to its full height, flip it to the right
side and pull the foot away from the
building.
Back inside, Virginia stood
on a frame over a 160-pound weight. He
had to use a sledge hammer to drive the
weight back 5 feet to simulate breaking
into a roof.
The next stop was the 44
feet of blacked-out pipe with a
right-angle turn. Virginia had to crawl
through this as though he was searching
for someone in a smoke-filled building.
Virginia rested several times while a
fireman pounded on the pipe and others
urged him on, but he did finally crawl
out.
By this time, one of the
firemen had called to the county EMS
station and two EMTs had
responded.
They and the firemen watched
while Virginia completed the
victim-removal test, dragging a
165-pound “victim” 70 feet around an
obstacle and back.
The time was then 10 minutes
and 46 seconds with still one more test
ahead of him. The firemen called an end,
Virginia wobbled off with the EMTs, and
Blake demonstrated the test for the
ceiling breach. Candidates have to push
up a 60-pound weight three times, pull
down an 80-pound weight five times and
repeat this four times.
Swift, who is about to turn
41, ran the test the other day at nine
minutes and 28 seconds. Blake, 24, did
it in just over eight minutes.
The first step in the hiring
process is a reading and comprehension
exam administered by staff from Wake
Technical Community College where the
candidates must score 60 or better. Next
is the agility test.
“After successfully
completing the agility test, the
candidates will be selected to attend a
formal interview with the Hiring Task
Group,” Swift said in an e-mail this
week. “The candidates that are selected
to move forward in the process will
attend the fire chief’s interview, where
they will be offered employment with the
Wake Forest Fire Department.
Once hired, the candidates
will attend the first recruit class the
Wake Forest department has offered.
“Each candidate will complete
approximately 300 hours of training to
receive North Carolina State Firefighter
I and II certification. They will also
be required to receive certification as
a North Carolina State Basic EMT. The
training will be coordinated through
Wake Tech and there is no cost. We are
planning to hold all of the classes at
Station #1,” Swift said. |
