Orcas Fire welcomed 12 new firefighter recruits to the fold on April 12, trained, certified and ready to brave the fiery depths to save lives and property.
“It’s an extremely high level of commitment and an extremely high level of dedication, and your neighbors are counting on you – and they know who you are,” said chief Mike Harris to the 12.
Families watched in support as the young troops took an oath of service to the community and received certificates of achievement at the ceremony. They will be “recruits” for a customary one year probationary period before being considered full-fledged firefighters.
Recognized at the ceremony were: Kellan Bernhardt, Cameron Fralick, Lindsay Schirmer, Brian Schmitz, Alan Stameisen, Joshua Tye, Scott Walker, Laura Trevellyan and four high school “cadets”: Cameron Schuh, Katrina Lindgren, Liam Nutt and Zander Woofenden.
While Tye and Stameisen are new to the department, other recruits already had EMT certification and were adding firefighting to their list of skills; Schirmer is in her third year of working in administration at the station.
Division chief Patrick Shepler said each recruit endured 130 hours of training composed of classroom time, online classes and a comprehensive national fire protection association curriculum that included topics like fire behavior, ropes and knots, forcible entry, ladders and water supply. Countless mock live training exercises in dragging heavy hoses up and down stairs, enacting entrapment scenarios and ground ladder use culminated with two-day live fire training down in North Bend at the Wash. State Fire Academy.
At the academy the recruits engaged in search and rescue in live fire, put out car fires and extensively studied how fire behaves over time.
“You sit there wearing breathing apparatus and a teacher is talking as fire rolls up the wall and across the top of your head,” said Shepler.
He added that overall volunteer levels are healthy, but the department is always in need of more volunteers in the island’s outlying areas.
Other fire news
In other news, Chief Harris read a letter of thanks from the San Juan Island EMS; after the April 3 fatal fire Orcas Fire sent its Critical Incidents Debriefing team over within two hours to help the responders debrief from the shocking incident.
The fire commissioners voted to purchase the .33 acre property that is home to Westsound’s Station 22, at a total cost of $156,332, from owner Victor Boede. They amended the 2011 capital projects budget to provide for the purchase.
Contractor and volunteer firefighter Dwight Guss was hired by the commission to oversee the construction of Deer Harbor’s Station 24. Although his contract expired in November 2010, he continues to daily oversee the work on a pro bono basis. He says he will continue oversight and reports to the commission out of personal concern for the project’s success.
It was also announced that Obstruction Island and its residents now have a landing zone. On April 27 Airlift Northwest will inspect the landing strip for its use.
