Chaffey's Future Firefighters
Chaffey Fire Tech student Andrew Segobia. Photo by Mikayla Lewis
A night operations crew battles a fire in Los Angeles County. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Selleck.
Chaffey College students Andrew Segobia and Jeremy Selleck are working hard towards becoming firefighters.
Segobia, 18, and Selleck, 17, are in their respective first and third semesters of the Chaffey Fire Technology program.
Trade school fire recruits training to cut fire breaks. Photo by Jeremy Selleck
“The fire tech program is like the entry level into the fire service career,” says Selleck.
A fire science degree is not mandatory to enter a fire academy. However, the program increases prospective firefighters’ chances of being accepted into major fire department’s academy programs. Academy applicants only need a high school diploma or GED, and must meet the age requirement of 18 or older.
All stations also require the CPAT, short for Candidate Physical Assessment Test. The CPAT is a physical test to ensure recruits are physically eligible to work the job. The assessment includes pike poles, ladder raises, dummy drags, hose drags, equipment carry, forcible entry, search, rescue drag, stair climbs and ceiling breach and pulls. The entire test is timed. If a participant stops, they get a warning. If a second pause occurs, they are dropped.
Selleck says that while the fire tech program focuses mainly on information, the academy itself is much more hands-on learning.
Los Angeles County Fire Department and US Fire Service on the scene of a fire in Los Angeles County. Photo by Jeremy Selleck.
“Right now, it’s more or less paper. You do your homework, you do your quizzes. But the academy is strictly physical. Class time is less than 25% of your time,” Selleck explains.
Trade school students practice deploying fire shelters. Photo by Jeremy Selleck.
Selleck spends three days a week training students at a trade school. There, the school covers many of the same basics as a fire academy. Students are taught how to use equipment, deploy shelters, salvage house fires and the right conditions for controlled burns. Selleck says that humidity, terrain and wind are key factors to safety.
Selleck has been interested in becoming a firefighter since the beginning of his junior year of high school. After becoming enrolled in an entry-level class that year, he discovered his fondness for the profession and has stuck with it ever since.
Segobia, however, says that firefighting has been a dream of his since childhood. His mind is set on continuing until it is his career.
“We are set, we have a foot in the door, but we have to keep working and not stop,” Segobia says.