Seventeen new faces will soon join the ranks the ranks of the Squamish Fire Rescue Service (SFRS) after volunteer firefighters graduated from 2011 Fire Rescue Recruits training on Monday (June 20).
The six-month course saw the recruits commit a lot of time and effort to get to where they are now. But it's still just the beginning, said SFRS Capt. Russ Inouye.
"It was about 170 hours of their time, and that just gets them the bare minimum to start off and be reasonably safe in the fire zone," he said.
The graduates have yet to receive medical or first aid training, but that doesn't mean they aren't qualified for their positions, Inouye said.
"In reality it takes someone about four to five years before they have a reasonable grasp of everything there is in the field of firefighting, and even then they're not specializing in anything. They're more of a jack of all trades," he said. "This is just the start. I've been doing this for 20 years and I still go to courses and still learn lots of stuff."
SFRS leaders were excited to see strong interest from this year's recruiting class, but Chief Tom Easterbrook insisted the selection process was taken seriously.
"It was over 25 who applied; you have to be very careful about who you select because the public holds the fire service in very high regard. And they give us a tremendous amount of trust that we have to maintain, so we have to make sure we only hire people of extremely high calibre."
The "volunteer" part of the title is a bit of a misnomer, as the men and women who graduated this week are more than capable of handling any emergency situations that come up, Easterbrook said. Volunteer firefighters make up more than 90 per cent of the SFRS contingent, with just five professional firefighters on the payroll.
By undergoing training and joining the volunteer corps, the recruits are making a huge commitment to the service and to Squamish. According to Easterbrook, it's a level of commitment that's not always acknowledged or recognized.
"I don't think the people of Squamish have a true appreciation - because they can't, they don't know," he said. "How could they know how good of a fire department they have and predominantly because of the dedication and selflessness of the volunteer group."
On Monday evening it may have been hard to wipe the smiles off the new recruits' faces, but calls for service came in both before the ceremony could begin and soon after - a reminder that Squamish's firefighters would soon be back to work.
