Montesano Fire Chief Cory Rux is teaching the next generation of firefighters. But the blaring alarms on the self-contained breathing apparatuses they are trying on keep interrupting him.
Each Thursday, about 20 students from Montesano and Aberdeen high schools gather at the Montesano Fire Department station for firefighting class. For several of them, this is their second year of the class. Last Thursday, the students were trying out the bunker gear, the clothing, boots, helmet and breathing equipment needed to protect them when fighting a fire.
The equipment is the same gear professional and volunteer firefighters use, but it has been decommissioned.
The obnoxious alarm on the SCBAs can be shut off by shaking the gear. From time to time, Rux and several students yell, “Shake! Shake!” each time an alarm sounds for more than a second.
“Today is their first practical day,” Rux said while the class was donning the gear. “We do one practical day a month. … We’ve coordinated with the school so they can get the rest of their periods opened up.
“At the culmination of this, we will take them down in May to a controlled live-fire training facility and they’ll actually get to fight some fire.
“At the end of this class, we’ll have nine months of working through the … SHAKE! SHAKE! … nine months of working through the firefighter one curriculum.”
The students seem to be enjoying the experience. Several of them line up to take pictures with one another.
“I really enjoy the cadet program because I like the hands-on experience of being a firefighter,” Montesano senior Alexandria Casey said in an email. “Learning about everything firefighters do to save lives is really interesting, and I’m excited to start volunteering when I turn 18.”
But it is hard work.
“The challenges of the fire department are trying to remember the exact procedures of everything,” she said.
Rux sees the program as benefiting his and other fire departments.
“We do a two-year program. We have returners who were juniors last year who went through Fire Science 1. This year, they’re going through it again, and it’s Fire Science 2. And we do it a little differently,” Rux said.
“It’s an excellent build-upon program because they have this succession and then when they graduate, they will have a really good grasp of it.”
The investment of Rux’s time as instructor seems to be paying off.
“We have several people who are volunteering for us (former students) who have hit the ground running,” he says.
The students learn more than how to get dressed quickly and fight fires.
“We integrate a lot of 21st-century skills as well. We have teamwork. We have leadership; we took an entire week and did leadership. We’ve done communications,” Rux said. “We do all kids of different soft skills. Not just fire science.
“I look at this, and I see future firefighters. I see future leaders. And so if we can reinvest in our fire service, that’s what it’s about for me.”
A group of students in the fire science class poses for a picture Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019, at the Montesanon Fire Station while a classmate takes the picture (right). (Michael Lang | Grays Harbor News Group)
Montesano High School senior Alexandria Casey (front left) and other Monte and Aberdeen students don bunker gear Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019, at the Montesano Fire Station. Casey, who is Company C leader, and the others were taking part in a class on fire science offered through the schools by Fire Chief Corey Rux. (Michael Lang | Grays Harbor News Group)
