Cheney Fire Department's Brett Castillo embraces his mother Judi Castillo after receiving his pin during the West Plains Recruit Structural Academy graduation ceremony.
Crew leader trainees Jacob Kirwin, Sarah Specht and Andrew Montoya (from left to right) recite their oaths during the Crew Leader Academy graduation ceremony.
The West Plains Recruit Structural Academy graduated 21 recruits from its recent class, along with three crew leaders, during a June 23 ceremony at Medical Lake High School's auditorium.
The academy consists of firefighter recruits from Airway Heights and Medical Lake fire departments and Spokane County Fire District 10. It requires a large time commitment by the new recruits as they spend about four and a half months and over 200 hours of hands-on training.
During the academy, the recruits are taught the basic skills of firefighting, which include health and safety, fire behavior, building construction, firefighting tactics, hose streams and other tasks associated with the fire service.
Recruits are trained to International Fire Service Accreditation Congress (IFSAC) IFSAC FF 1 and IFSAC Hazardous Materials awareness and operations levels. They are then able to take the IFSAC certification tests that are nationally accepted.
The graduates have successfully completed this commitment on a voluntary basis and are essential to each agency's ability to provide 24/7 emergency Fire/EMS response to their respective communities. Residents may see these new firefighters soon responding to emergency calls in their respective areas.
Recruit firefighters
Airway Heights -Heath Rowley, Austin Strickland, Megan Morgan, Luke Helm, Alexis Moore, Christian Frink, Nichole Schmidt and Mitchell Erickson.
Cheney -Brett Castillo.
Medical Lake - Saundra Patterson and William Storey.
Spokane County Fire District 10 -Joshua Baker, Killian Campbell, Phillip Herrin, Brian Kamphaus, Julie Nowak, Andrew O'Reilly, Patrick Ronay, Jesse Schmidlkofer, Antonio Tessitore, Dustin Todd and Peter Welzig.
Crew Leader Trainees
Medical Lake -Jacob Kiwrin.
Spokane County Fire District 10 - Andrew Montoya and Sarah Specht.
Award winners
Chief's Company - Killian Campbell, Luke Helm and Heath Rowley
The Jake Award - Joshua Baker
Valedictorian - Alexis Moore
The Bulldog Award -Campbell
Most Improved - Austin Strickland
The Bugle Award -Sarah Specht
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