PASCO, Wash. –
The Pasco Fire Department is holding a new training for their academy recruits to prepare them for a shift at a fire station.
The recruits are being put through a 24-hour shift that includes situations such as car fires, motor vehicle accidents, medical emergencies, going to a call and it being canceled and going grocery shopping for the fire station and being called back to go to a call.
Kannin Sugden is a firefighter paramedic recruit at the academy.
Sugden started out with 10 people including her in the 15-week training and now there are eight left.
Sugden is learning how what it’s like on a 24-hour shift.
“It’s a nervousness, but it’s a good nervousness,” said Sugden.
Sugden told me that one of the main reasons she wanted to be a firefighter is because her dad was one.
She said she was rebellious as a teenager and her dad took her to work with him and she was hooked.
“I’m really looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a ton of fun. I think it’s going to be very exciting and physically demanding,” said Sugden.
This training is one of its kind in Washington State.
“This is the first time anybody we know of in Washington State has done a 24-day with their recruits. Even the state fire academy doesn’t do something like this” said Pasco Fire’s Ben Shearer.
Shearer said the idea of this training came from one of the instructors and said the fire academy has come a long way.
“So we started out where it was just a 50-hour week recruiting academy. We gave them the basics of fire hose stuff, here’s a nozzle, here’s a truck, here’s how you start the engine” said, Shearer.
The recruits are going to be done with their training and soon be sent to the firehouse they will be assigned to.
“We’ve been working so hard for the last 15 to 16 weeks and this is finally the time where we get to put it all together,” said Sugden.
Sugden said she was going to be feeling the long shift the next day.
“Tired, probably very tired,” said Sugden.
