Fire ready

Stephen Cameron says his eight weeks of training was just the beginning of his life-long education as a Thunder Bay firefighter.

The 38-year-old father of two said he had wanted to fight fires since he was five. A former plumber, he enlisted and spent eight weeks training before the fire chief assigned him to a platoon and fire station. He joined the seven other recruits at their graduation ceremony at the Thunder Bay and Regional Emergency and Practice Services Training Centre on Saturday.

Cameron said it is a dream come true to finally become a firefighter.

"It’s been a life-long goal," Cameron said. "It isn’t so much of a graduation but it’s the beginning of the real learning. It really is the beginning of our training because we are not going to go on the trucks, getting out to meet the public and use all the skills we learned here."

Switching professions wasn’t difficult, he said. What made the transition smoother was that the other firefighters shared the same compassion to help people that he did.

Recruits go through weeks of both physical and mental preparation before graduation. Cameron and the other recruits started with a written exam, physical fitness testing, live fire testing and interviews. Cameron said the training was a real revelation to how difficult the job could be.

"It’s a very demanding course," he said. "The eight weeks that we are here is really just a basic taste of what we’re going to experience. It’s a lot to learn and it has been a great experience."

Cameron is stationed at North Central Station on C platoon.

The other recruits who graduated were Marcus Kavalchuk, Dave Kendell, Andrew Legros, Harley Martin, Kyle Solomon, Tim Stark and Myles Stevens.

Fire Chief John Hay said about 400 potential recruits wrote the initial exam in January. The passing recruits went on to the fitness test, where more candidates were cut.

Hay said eight is an ideal class size to train. Any more recruits than that, and training becomes more of a challenge.

"I’m looking forward to the young, eager individuals to come in and replace our veterans who have retired," Hay said. "You have to be very dedicated and disciplined and pay a lot of attention to preparation. Candidates competing for a job with the fire service in Thunder Bay are competing as people who have spent five or six years into preparing for this."

Hay said the two-year-old training facility provides them with everything they need to ensure the city has properly trained firefighters.