He looked at a fire truck just once and Miguel Rodriguez knew he had to be a firefighter.
“It’s really straightforward on what they do,” the FutureForward at Washington Square student said Wednesday. “They get to save lives, and even if it’s just saving a cat stuck in a tree, it still really matters to someone.”
“It’s the closest thing to be a real superhero,” said the arrow-straight Rodriguez, who addresses the older man asking questions as “sir.”
Rodriguez was a member of a four-person student crew who doused a basement fire in a single-family home at the North Metro Fire Training Center in Northglenn. The home was built by the adult fire crews to mimic an actual fire, complete with fake smoke and flames.
The smell was real, however, and after a few minutes of fire work Rodriguez and his team took a quick break before they took on another disaster. On this day, that included a motel fire and a fiery emergency in a high rise.
All was done under the tutelage of North Metro Fire crews as part of a unique program at Future Forward to get prospective firefighters into bunker gear and onto the front lines battling structure and wildfires in Colorado.
The students – who are mostly juniors and seniors at FutureForward – will undergo live burn drills at the North Metro Training Center, which is required for them to complete the State of Colorado Firefighter I Certification.
As many as 65 students are taking the firefighting and EMT courses at the training center this year. Last year, 24 students took classes, said Joel Sherry, firefighter instructor and department chair of the Fire Service Program offered by FutureForward.
Finding recruits
The new prospective recruits are coming at the right time as firefighting and emergency services recruits have dwindled significantly across the country, said Sara Farris, spokesperson for North Metro Fire Rescue District.
Meanwhile, North Metro Fire has experienced as 82% growth in emergency calls in the past 10 years, Farris said.
FutureForward’s Fire Service Program will get high schoolers into hands-on situations that will qualify them for real-time fire suppression work and get them into fire stations across the district, said Sherry.
“We really are facing a challenge in getting more firefighters and EMS crews,” said Sherry, “We see this as developing a good farm system like in baseball. As soon as they earn their credits and certification, they can almost jump right into a fire crew.”
“And, he added, “for these kids, it will be a heck of an experience.”
Students in the Firefighting 1 and 2 courses learn hands-on, practical skills in firefighters’ orientation, safety, fire behavior, building construction, firefighter protective equipment, fire streams, fire controls, fire detection, alarm and suppression systems, loss control and communications, according to FutureForward’s course description.
Students will also obtain both their CPR and HAZMAT certifications in the firefighting program. The credits they earn can transfer to the Community College of Aurora, said Marvin Lewis, principal at FutureForward at Washington Square.
“It really offers the time of hands-on work we emphasize at our school,” said Lewis. “We can’t thank North Metro for their help in this.”
Other metro area fire districts have contributed equipment to help the program, Sherry said.
“I think all of the local fire districts see this as an opportunity to connect with new firefighters that are coming up in the ranks, and that we will need all that extra help,” said Sherry.
Junior Ava Serna said she took the initial firefighting course at FutureForward on a lark. “I really didn’t know what it was about, I was just curious,” Serna said.
Then she was hooked.
“This is so cool,” Serna said as she prepared to go into a burning motel wearing her 50-pound bunker gear. “I just proved to myself I can do this, and I love every minute of it.”