There’s one thing that Bridget Blackmore, Cory Fleck and Cory Goncalves can agree on about their arrival in Texas: The weather was hot. Really hot.
They weren’t sure exactly what to expect, but found fewer horses and carriages, tumbleweeds and gunfights in the street than the movies led them to believe they would find.
“Everybody does wear cowboy boots, though,” said Blackmore. “And almost everybody chews.”
The trio went to the U.S. in September to attend Kilgore College Fire Academy for three months of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) training, a more affordable option for the local fire departments than training them in-house or at a Canadian academy.
A similar program in Canada runs between $12,000 and $15,000, while firefighting is heavily subsidized by the Texas government, running a bill of $1,750 per firefighter — still less than the $3,000 that would be spent on 500 hours spread over five years to train a single firefighter “in-house” at a department.
“The utilization of the academy provides for a much quicker higher level of training where these individuals are capable of all tasks that are required of a firefighter, completed in a period of three months,” said Creston Fire Rescue Chief Michael Moore. “This allows them to be immediately used in key firefighting tasks gaining experience at these skills immediately versus waiting years to be shown.”
Blackmore, Fleck and Goncalves were completely immersed in the lifestyle, living at the Flint-Gresham Fire Department (FGFD) for the duration. They would go to school during the day, with both classroom and practical training, and they would respond to calls with the department throughout the night.
“It was nice running the calls,” said Goncalves. “You could use what you’re learning.”
“What you learned, you might be able to put into practice,” added Fleck. “It really reinforced it.”
Calls included many structure fires and car accidents, far more than Fleck and Goncalves see as members of Creston Fire Rescue, and certainly more than Blackmore sees with the Canyon-Lister Fire Department (CLFD).
“Lots of their calls were pretty big, some wild stuff that we don’t always see,” said Fleck.
On one of his most memorable calls, he attended a structure fire, and was thrilled to climb on the roof and cut a hole to vent it.
“That was awesome,” he said.
Blackmore enjoyed fighting the second structure fire, this one a trailer, the trio attended.
“It was completely involved, so it was just an exterior attack,” she said.
She missed out on the last big one, though, having left Texas days before Fleck and Goncalves. A massive warehouse fire at a pallet factory on the north side of Tyler, the main centre near Kilgore, required all surrounding counties to be called in.
“On our last day, too!” enthused Fleck.
“I’m so jealous!” responded Blackmore.
But not all calls were so entertaining. Medical calls were also part of their duties, and one in particular sticks in Goncalves’ mind.
“A drug overdose,” he said “That’s pretty much all I’ll say about that one. I don’t want to go into detail.”
Fleck and Goncalves have been on the Creston department for about two years, and it’s been just over a year at Canyon-Lister for Blackmore.
Once they got started, there was no doubt that they wanted to continue.
“It’s the greatest thing you could be doing,” said Goncalves.
“I just decided to show up to one of the Monday night practices. I just fell in love with it,” said Blackmore.
“I don’t like going to work every day and knowing what you’re going to do,” said Fleck. “This, you can never anticipate what you’re going to be doing, and I really like that. It’s quick, you’ve got to think, it’s always a fast pace.”
The academy’s training ground allowed them the opportunity to try out a wide range of skills, from knot tying to putting up ladders to automobile extrication, Blackmore’s favourite part.
“We cut a lot of cars up,” she said.
Goncalves enjoyed practicing on live burns, which also involved trips to a chemical plant to practice fighting liquid petroleum gas fires.
For Fleck, the most interesting part was studying fire science and behaviour.
“It’s not stuff that is common knowledge,” he said. “It’s more in depth.”
Twenty-three out of 25 who started graduated from their Kilgore class, and the three from Creston were near the top.
“They say that the Canadians usually do better,” said Blackmore. “They’re so far away from home, and they’re so much more focused because they don’t have all the distractions. …
“I think it benefitted us a lot, just being in that environment the whole time. We were completely involved in the fire service the whole trip.”
Based on what Moore was told, Blackmore, Fleck and Goncalves represented the Creston Valley well at Kilgore and FGFD.
“Mike Fennel, the lead instructor at the fire academy, praised these firefighters for their dedication and commitment within the learning environment and how they helped make the entire class more competitive in seeing who could get the highest test scores on their written examinations throughout the program,” said Moore.
FGFD Chief Tim Stone told Moore that the three were some of the best-mannered students they have had.
“He enjoyed having them in this department for the three months, was very pleased with their commitment to their hall duties and schoolwork,” he said. “He also stated that because of the impression these three firefighters left on him, that if our department was to send more firefighters down, they would make room for them first at their fire hall over other firefighter cadets.”
Blackmore, Fleck and Goncalves will be putting what they learned to good use locally. Creston Fire Rescue currently has 28 firefighters, 19 of which are certified with NFPA training. On the 21-member CLFD, only Chief Glenn Guthrie and Blackmore have the training.
The trio plans to stay with their Creston Valley departments for a couple of years before leaving to pursue full-time work in larger centres.
And if the training they received made them sure of anything, it’s that they want to continue in their chosen professions.
“It’s about giving back,” said Blackmore. “I wanted something adventurous and I wanted it to matter.”
“Not everybody does that,” said Goncalves. “It’s not an ordinary thing you do.”
“At the end of the day, it really matters,” said Fleck. “You can say, ‘What I did today was worthwhile.’ ”