Five firefighters complete training

The Kahnawake Fire Brigade (KFB) will have five additional firefighters joining their ranks after they passed their Live Fire 1 course in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, this past weekend.

Kwaronienhawi Jacobs, Konwatharani Jacobs, Summer Martin, Brandon Chuby, and Heather McGregor will now be able to fight fires inside of buildings – before passing the training, they could only fight fires outside or assist outside on building fires.

McGregor – who has been with KFB the longest out of the five – first joined the brigade eight years ago to train as a firefighter, before instead completing the training to become a paramedic, due to some issues in getting all the firefighting training done.

“The way that training is, you're supposed to start with a group, and sometimes it falls apart,” said McGregor.

When the opportunity to finish her training arrived, she knew she wanted to finally do it.

Still, there were hurdles, especially on the administrative side.

According to Wihse Stacey, the KFB’s assistant fire chief, issues of timing, course and evaluator availability, and the Justice Institute of British Columbia (JIBC) guidelines and rules made the process, which usually takes about nine months, last for almost two years.

Of the six courses needed, four were able to be given in-house, while one was given online. The sixth and last one, Live Fire 1, requires trainees to fight live, but controlled, indoor fires.

Originally, according to McGregor, the KFB was going to use a building that had been given to them for training purposes, but the JIBC told them they could not use a structure they had acquired for the course.

“The cheapest and easiest way was to go to BC, to the JIBC, then use their building with their training,” said McGregor.

She said that the training was well worth the travel, though.

“It was amazing, it was intense, we learned a lot,” said McGregor.

Stacey joined them on their trip, and at first, was just listening in to the training to get a feel of what the course was like.

“I walked into the class, I introduced myself, and asked if I could observe. They were more than willing to allow me to,” said Stacey. "The next thing you know, I'm there in my fire suit, putting the air tank on my back before running in. Now that is a pretty cool observation.”

Prior to the trip, Stacey still used the acquired building to try to simulate what the course could be like.

“I wanted to get them to try and feel the heat. It's very difficult using a building where we can't really light a fire inside a building, because we're going to burn it down. So we did the best that we could in order to get them prepared in terms of that,” said Stacey.

“He prepped us very well. It made it almost easy,” said McGregor.

She said that the training helps to get mentally prepared to the realities of the job – running headlong into danger.

"You know there's danger. You know you have to prepare yourself. You know anything can happen, even in a controlled environment. You know there's still risks that you have to take. It's just knowing what you're signing up for. I think we were all here long enough to know what we were getting ourselves into,” said McGregor.

“Almost anybody can stand outside and hold the hose and spray water into a building,” said Stacey. “But it takes a certain skill set, a certain amount of experience, to go into a building on fire.”

He said that with the current human resources crunch happening everywhere in the community, everyone counts in terms of numbers, and adding five firefighters will help the KFB better respond to emergencies across the community.

Both Stacey and McGregor acknowledged the large amount of effort and support needed for the trainees to cross the finish line on their training.

“It takes a lot of passion and devotion to do this, and it can be very strenuous at times,” said Stacey.

“You kind of have to know this is what you want to do, because just as a whole, it's a lot of work,” said McGregor.

“But for me, it's a great career. But even if it's just volunteer, something to help the community, that's what we're always looking forward to doing.”

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