Source: The Republican (Springfield, MA)
Author: D.L. STEPHENSON; [email protected]
SOUTH HADLEY, MA – If the graduates from the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy’s I/II Basic Training Class 9 are anything like the thousands of firefighters who came before them, then no matter how old they get, “When they smell that smoke, they’ll still want to chase those trucks.”
So said the Rev. Neal P. White of United Methodist Church of Holyoke, who provided the invocation at yesterday’s graduation ceremonies held in the Art Building of Gamble Auditorium on the campus of Mount Holyoke College, as he cheered the new graduates’ dedication and commitment to firefighting.
“You are so lucky to be joining one of the most incredible fraternities in the world,” White said to the 29 graduates.
Full-time careers await some graduates, while others will continue providing support services to their departments.
Nonetheless, speakers at the podium yesterday encouraged the graduates to continue taking courses and building upon their skills as firefighters, emergency medical technicians and other support personnel.
Although the program is not mandated by the state, some departments require it, said academy director Laurent R. McDonald.
Originally scheduled for February, the graduation was postponed until yesterday because of a snowstorm.
During the ceremony, which drew more than 100 friends, family, dignitaries and others, some of the graduates were handed their certificates by family members who also have or had careers in firefighting, McDonald said.
McDonald himself, who spent two years as chief of the Dudley Fire Department and before that 21 years as an Air Force fire protection field career manager in Florida, comes from a family of Southbridge firefighters.
The academy where these graduates received their six-month training is located in Springfield, and the program is geared specifically toward on-call firefighters in departments in Hampshire and Franklin counties, McDonald said.
The graduates represented fire departments in the towns of Amherst, Becket, Blandford, Bondsville, Chesterfield, Gill, Goshen, Granby, Hadley, Monson, Russell and South Hadley District 2.
The Firefighter I/II Basic Training program provides standard recruit training on nights and weekends to fit the schedules of firefighters in Hampshire and Franklin counties, he said. “It’s an exciting time and another stepping stone,” said William Patenaude of South Hadley, one of yesterday’s graduates.
Patenaude said he has been an on-call firefighter for four years in South Hadley’s District 2 Fire Department.
The graduates received 220 hours of training in fire behavior and mechanics, hazardous materials and other relevant topics, McDonald said.