After a rigorous three-week orientation and training process, Sumter County Fire & EMS has welcomed six new hires.
During the three-week orientation, the recruits become familiar with and use personal protective equipment (PPE), engine company skills, forcible entry, health and safety, search and rescue, ground ladders, ventilation, pro-active rapid interaction team (RIT) operations, Emergency Vehicle Operations Class (EVOC), vehicle extrication and stabilization, and firefighter survival. Physical fitness training is performed daily. This training helps new hires prepare to meet the everyday real-world scenarios Fire & EMS regularly encounter.
In addition, recruits perform an entry-and-exit physical abilities assessment and earn their helmet fronts by completing a hands-on survival test at the halfway point. At the end of orientation, the recruits must complete a “search” for their badges to graduate to the field and earn their station assignments.
“When we start orientation, on day one, we tell them that attitude and effort are what we are looking for. If they give us those two things, we can train them to be effective members of our department,” said John Davis, Division Chief of Training, Sumter County Fire & EMS. “Orientation Class 24.01 gave us all-out effort with a positive all-in attitude each day of orientation. The recruits pushed themselves and each other during their time in orientation, which resulted in rapid skill development and resilient mindsets. This was evident with the earning of their badges and station assignments on the final day of training.”
The new hires are David Ramirez, Kyle VanHouten, Nehemia Pabon, Hannah Jones, Andrew Oldfield, and Joseph Henigsmith.
