During a training exercise recently at the Fire Academy, Marlon Montenegro, fire academy cadet, practices moving with a charged fire hose in preparation for a small scale gas fire exercise later in the day.

El Camino College Union

November 15, 2012 El Camino College Union 13PHOTO ESSAY

Fire Academy mentors, left to right, Jason Silva, Matt Taras, Andrew Behrens and Eric Anderson, share a laugh in front of the gas fire simulation prop recently at the El Segundo Chevron Oil Refinery fire training facility after the cadets finished their training exer-cise. Mentors are previous fire academy cadets who return to the academy to help train new recruits.

Photos and Story by Philip Prins

Images of firefighters often grace the pages of news-papers and magazines across the country, especially during disasters. What is not often seen is where and how these fire-fighters morph from average individuals into tough-ened professionals. One place where this transforma-tion begins is the EC Fire Academy in Inglewood, California. Fire Chief William Melendez, director of the Fire Academy, said that being a firefighter is a calling. “You have to have a good personality, you’ve got to have loyalty, you’ve got to have the dedication and desire to be a fireman,” Melendez said. “You can’t force somebody to do that; they have to say ‘That’s what I want to be.’” The program consists of 400 hours of training packed into 10 weeks that includes both time in the classroom and hands-on training in areas like ladder

use, search and rescue, fire behavior, working in con-fined spaces, hazardous materials, trench rescue, using hoses and extricating people from damaged vehicles. The Fire Academy has put 134 groups through the training process and although each one is different, the current group, class 134, has done very well, Me-lendez said. “This has been an outstanding class, they have been coming together and have been able to achieve the goals and objectives we set for them,” he said. “They don’t quit on us; it’s great to have this type of attitude and response back from the students.” Melendez said that it is a tough program and the instructors push the cadets hard, but when they are finished they will be prepared to move in to the profes-sional world of firefighting and work as a team. “The main thing is it is not one person’s ability to put the fire out; it takes the entire group to be able to function as a team, every movement makes a differ-ence,” he said.

Fire and water

Cadet Adam Hyink repels down the Fire Academy training tower in a skills demonstration for family and friends during a recent class 134’s graduation ceremony.

A hose team made up of Fire Academy cadets, along with an academy mentor to supervise, prepare to move forward and suppress a simulated large scale gas fire recently at the El Segundo Chevron Oil Refinery fire-training facility.

A cadet walks away during an Academy training exercise that uses propane props to simulate common fire scenarios such as a burning Christmas tree or a fire fueled by a gas leak.

Cadet Lanakila Guerrero runs to exchange a depleted oxygen bottle for a full one as cadets practice moving up the stairwell of a multi-story building with charged fire hoses.