Gilmer Fire and Rescue (GFR) added 14 new first responders to the ranks with its second new recruit training academy.
The almost nine-month program wrapped in May, followed by graduation for the new emergency response personnel.
“They end up with about eight national certifications. Six of them already had their EMS certification, so they just did the fire part of it, and eight of them went through the fire and EMS parts. We had four of them who were paramedics already,” said Deputy Fire Chief Jason Bryant. “They’re all full time, and they’ve been online since the end of April.”
The paid, on-the-job training academy is divided into firefighting and EMS legs. By completing the two courses, which include drills, realistic emergency scenarios and classroom learning, recruits earn Firefighter 1, Firefighter 2, AEMT and other certifications including HazMat awareness, HazMat operations, flammable combustable liquid handling, pressurized container fire control and structure fire control. Instruction is provided in-house by GFR team members.
“This was very similar to the first recruit class we did last year, and we had great success with that,” Bryant said. “It was Monday-Friday, from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. You get beat up pretty good physically in fire school, and EMS school is in the classroom learning about everything in the world with that.”
Of the 14 new additions to the department, 12 are from Gilmer County, Bryant noted. Making the cut were Glen Ballard, Luke Cain, Kingston Collier, Jacob Goss, Isaiah Rooks, Scott Herring, Tim Allison, Zachary Dad, Travis Hass, Holly Evans, Ashley Young, Noah Herrin, Jeffrey Morrell and Justin Butler.
“It’s always nice to have homegrown people to serve your community, and that has certainly gone very well for us. We hope to rinse and repeat that next year if we’re able to,” Bryant said.
Whether or not the fire department will stage another recruit academy depends on if funding to hire new employees is available in next year’s budget.
“If we get additional personnel for new positions, then that is an option,” Bryant said. “The good thing is we are almost fully staffed with only three (open) positions. You really don’t want to put on a full academy for three people, but if we’re able to get more personnel next year, there’s definitely a possibility we could do another recruit class.”