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Academy stokes
grads’ fire
BY PAT KIMBROUGH
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – In pursuing his career goal, Mark Suggs has had
plenty of education when it comes to the job of a firef i g h t er.
The 20-year-old from High
Point serves as a volunteer for the Horneytown
Fire Department and recently earned an associate’s degree from Guilford
Technical Community Colle ge.
Earlier this year, he decided to take part in the High Point Fire
Department’s first Citizen’s Academy, an 11-week program offered to the
public that teaches participants about the work of the department.
“I was thinking about working for High Point, so I thought it would be a
good experience,” said Suggs, who plans to seek a firefighter’s position
when the department starts its next round of hiring. “Some of it was in the
classroom, but a lot of it was at their training cent er.
“It really lets you see everything that goes into what they do. I
think the class really enjoyed it.” The academy ended in May with a
graduation ceremony for the 16 people who took part. The second academy
class probably will begin early next year, according to the fire department.
The class sessions covered all aspects of firefighters’ work, from
learning about fire behavior and smoke movement to training in CPR and how
a defibrillator is used on cardiac arrest victims.
Terra Mc Kee enrolled in the academy shortly after she went
Horneytown Fire Department volunteer
to work as the fire department’s GIS specialist, handling the department’s
computer mapping system.
She said some of the instruc- tion covered the department’s
specialty teams, and the class was given a chance to rappel off a
four-story building and crawl through an 18-inch pipe to simulate a rescue
operation.
Mc Kee said the instructors focused on safety and made the
curriculum interesting and easy to understand.
Despite Hollywood’s
portrayal of the job, she learned that there’s more to fighting a fire
than just “kicking down the door” of a burning house and going inside.
“There was a lot that, as a citizen, I didn’t really think about
before I attended the classes,” she said.
pkimbrough@hpe.com |888-3531
’It really lets you see everything that goes into what they do. I
think the class really enjoyed it.’
Mark Suggs
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