INNISFAIL – Local firefighters and emergency service workers were recently commanded to converge outside in the parking lot of Innisfail High School.
There were fire trucks, command vehicles and ambulances.
Fire hoses were stretched out. Emergency responders were everywhere.
But there was no emergency at this scene on June 19.
It was the launch of the Innisfail Fire Department’s new Fire Cadet Program with trained professional emergency service personnel on hand to give a dozen curious high school kids a glimpse of a firefighter’s’ vital life-saving role in the community.
“The intent today was just to give a little opportunity to kind of feel it out and to generate some interest,” said Tim Ainscough, assistant chief of the Innisfail Fire Department.
With the creation of the new cadet program, Innisfail is joining other regional communities, including Red Deer County, Olds, Didsbury and Sundre, in having this special opportunity for youth.
The Innisfail initiative will be a two-year program that will officially begin this fall for teens 16- to 18-years-old who have dreams of being a firefighter.
Ainscough said the plan is to have 16 to 20 new recruits for the inaugural first year of the program.
“If we get 10, we'll run it with 10,” said Ainscough, adding recruits will meet once a week on Thursday evenings for three hours at the Innisfail Fire Department. “The first hour will be theory and the last two will be doing practical things.”
He said first year recruits will train just like seasoned firefighters, learning basic firefighting and first aid skills while fully suited up with uniforms and gear.
In the second year the young recruits will be trained to the same National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standard as experienced firefighters, said Ainscough, adding students will have advanced first aid training and certified courses.
“We'll get them out into bunker gear, and by the time we train them, they'll start wearing a breathing pack, and we'll start teaching them the tools,” said Ainscough. "And towards the end of the program, we'll do a day of live fire burns.
“They'll actually get to do some actual firefighting,” he added. “When they turn 18, they can walk onto the fire department and join or they can take that experience and training and move on to a higher level if they their interest is to go to a full-time department in Calgary or Edmonton or Red Deer.”
For young Innisfailians who have thought about being a firefighter there are huge incentives to try the new cadet program.
The intent is to provide the local cadet program free of charge, unlike ones in many other jurisdictions where tuition can cost up to $2,500 a year.
Ainscough said the town has “committed” money for the program and the Innisfail Kinsmen has agreed to become a major sponsor, hoping to raise up to $30,000.
“We're working with a couple other businesses in the community, and then we'll be going to the other service clubs and hopefully bringing them online,” said Ainscough, who is a longtime Kinsmen member. “ But our intent is to raise the money so we can make it no cost for the kids.”
Secondly, the new Fire Cadet Program is a way to build up high school credits.
“We figure we can get them three, four or five credits in their first year and nine, 11 or 12 in their second year,” said Ainscough. “It will definitely have a positive impact.”
But the local fire department is looking for serious applicants for the new program.
There is a rigorous application process, and each applicant must have a resume.
Applicants have to have references, with at least 10 hours of community service behind them.
And they have to come into the fire department for an interview.
“We're going to treat it like they're applying for a job, and we're going to try to build those life skills through the whole program,” said Ainscough.
