WANIC Fire & EMS field trip sparks interest in firefighting career

Students dressed in full firefighting gear on a sunny afternoon in the Cascade Mountains recently, black smoke occasionally billowing from a dark concrete building.

The Fire & EMS students from Washington Network for Innovative Careers (WANIC) Skill Center spent the day at the Washington State Fire Training Academy east of North Bend — a rare chance to see first-hand how fire behaves.

Mentor firefighters volunteer to lead the 34 students through seven different stations. The stations simulate how fire behaves in locations such as a house, a ship or a warehouse. Students also search through a black maze that simulates the darkened conditions of a hotel or apartment fire. Participants practice ladder operations and maneuver “big water” rushing from a fire hose.

For the vast majority of the year, students are focused on learning how to provide emergency medical services.

“This is 85 percent of what firefighters do,” said Jack Greaves, director of First-In Training and Education (FITE Fire), which teaches the class.

He said students who are empathetic and who want to serve make the best candidates for firefighters.

This is the sixth year that WANIC has offered Fire & EMS training through FITE Fire. WANIC serves students in the Northshore, Lake Washington, Bellevue, Everett, Issaquah, Riverview and Snoqualmie Valley school districts. The Fire & EMS classes take place at the WANIC campus at the Lake Washington Institute for Technology in Kirkland.

Jacob Walton, a senior at Bothell High School — one of the schools served by WANIC — said he always thought firefighting was pretty cool, but he didn’t see himself in that role. A structure fire near his house changed that. With just a couple weeks before the first day of his junior year, Walton registered for the Fire & EMS class.

After he graduates this year, Walton plans to attend Everett Community College. The first four classes in the fire science program are waived for WANIC Fire & EMS graduates. He has applied to a residency program that would pay for his college while he works as a firefighter three days a week.

Romey Xayamouangbo was feeling stressed his sophomore year because he didn’t know what he wanted to do after he graduated. He did know he liked helping people. His career counselor at Juanita High School recommended he look into the WANIC Fire & EMS program.

This is Xayamouangbo’s second year of Fire & EMS at WANIC. He likes the camaraderie of the program. As a second-year student, he leads a team of four other students.

He plans to graduate from Juanita this month and pursue his bachelor’s degree in emergency management from the University of Alaska Fairbanks while working as a student firefighter.

Ryan Smith, a graduate of Emerson K-12, is an alum of the WANIC program and is participating in Recruit Academy, a 16-week course that will qualify him to be a firefighter at Snohomish County Fire District 5. He is looking forward to the career, but he said not everyone who takes the Fire & EMS class becomes a firefighter.

“Some people go into other medical careers like nursing or become medics,” he said. “It really helps people decide what they want to do.”

This is taken from a Lake Washington School District news release.