Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Nineteen recruits celebrated the completion of the L&A County Firefighter Recruit Program with a ceremony at the Napanee Fire Hall on June 13.
Members of council, along with fellow firefighters, friends and family were on hand to honour the graduates who will now serve Greater Napanee, Deseronto and Addington Highlands. The recruits were trained in Napanee as part of a mutual aid program which not only supports their own community but allows for more firefighters to be on call in the surrounding area in the event of a major fire.
“It’s been quite the recruitment and quite a commitment for the paid on-call firefighters as they started 120 days ago and showed up to the training as requested,” said Greater Napanee Fire acting chief Shawn Armstrong. “They were also certified to be a firefighter in the province of Ontario. They meet the certification requirements, which is another additional part of the training that wasn’t traditionally there.”
The recruits will now join their respected forces as paid on-call. They will make a lot of the same sacrifices as full time staff, prepared to drop what they are doing at any given moment to respond to an emergency.
“It’s really a calling,” said Armstrong. “They are paid for their services, albeit they’re not scheduled as such which just adds a another later of commitment. In this situation we do really appreciation the commitment that paid on call firefighters make.”
For some, joining the department as paid on-call is a stepping stone towards a full time career. For others it’s something they do along with their normal 9-5 job.
“All of them are community orientated that’s for sure,” said Armstrong. “Some of them have greater aspirations to become a full-time firefighter. Some are just offering the gift of their service to the community and recognizing that they want to give back. We have both style of firefighter on the Greater Napanee Fire Department and we’re happy to have all of them.”
Armstrong made special mention of the members the department that go above and beyond their normal responsibilities to help train recruits.
The L&A County Firefighter Recruit Program has been a training collaboration of local fire departments since 2012. This program has allowed the mutual aid departments to train its newest recruits together. This has allowed for the departments to ensure that all new members begin with the same base level of knowledge to work safely and efficiently both with their own department and with their mutual aid partners. The new firefighters train diligently for several weeks before finally completing the program. As part of the program, each recruit upon successful completion of the necessary provincial testing receives NFPA Firefighter 1001 Level 1 & 2 certifications.
Those interested in learning more about becoming a recruit are encouraged to visit www.greaternapanee.com/town-hall/careers-and-volunteering/paid-on-call-firefighting/.