On Friday Will, Alex and I went up to Greensboro for my brother's graduation from the fire department. It was so cool to see all the guys (and girls) get pinned after 14 weeks of gruelling training...both physical and mental. I'm soooo proud of Tim. He first mentioned becoming a fire fighter a few years ago. As a TV camera man he was going to many of the same newsworthy events (car wrecks, fires, etc) as the fire crew but felt useless with a camera on his shoulder. Instead, he decided he'd rather be there helping. I don't blame him!
So, after submitting an application, doing an interview, passing the personality testing and doing the physical test, he started his training in February. Some of the physical training blows my mind...like crawling through a dark building with all his gear on doing a "left hand turn search" only to hear the "beeping" of his tank telling him he's only got 5 minutes of oxygen left. So him (and the rest of his team) have to retrace their steps to get out before running out of air. Or, climbing up a ladder outside a building carrying a second ladder on your back. Wow. The recruits dropped the pounds...fast!!
One of the most impressive things I learned during the speeches on Friday was that the City of Greensboro's fire department has a Class 1 Public Protection Classification (PPC), first received in 1991. Only 42 of the 45,000 fire districts in the US have achieved the Class 1 PPC, and Greensboro is one of only seven departments in the world to be internationally accredited AND hold the Class 1 rating. Way to go Tim!!!
Tomorrow he starts 4 weeks of EMT training and after that he gets assigned to a station in Greensboro...either on a ladder or engine truck. Will can't wait to go visit Tim at work!!
1 comments:
Very impressive. It takes a special kind of person to become a firefighter. I know you and your family are very proud of him.
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