Photo by Al Stover Medical Lake Fire Department recruit Brooke Blake, standing next to Chief Don Malone, received the Bulldog award.
The West Plains Recruit Structural Academy graduated 19 recruits from its recent class, along with six crew leaders, during a Dec. 22 ceremony at Medical Lake High School's auditorium.
The academy consists of firefighter recruits from Airway Heights and Medical Lake fire departments and Spokane County Fire District 10. It requires a large time commitment by the new recruits as they spend about four and a half months and over 200 hours of hands-on training.
During the academy, the recruits are taught the basic skills of firefighting, which include health and safety, fire behavior, building construction, firefighting tactics, hose streams and other tasks associated with the fire service.
Recruits are trained to International Fire Service Accreditation Congress (IFSAC) IFSAC FF 1 and IFSAC Hazardous Materials awareness and operations levels. They are then able to take the IFSAC certification tests that are nationally accepted.
The graduates have successfully completed this commitment on a voluntary basis and are essential to each agency's ability to provide 24/7 emergency Fire/EMS response to their respective communities. Residents may see these new firefighters soon responding to emergency calls in their respective areas.
Recruit firefighters
Airway Heights - Matthew Bailey, Mathew Blaha, Andrea Briones, David Ivanov, Britt LaChance, Andrew Lenander, Charles Lott and Scott Polley.
Medical Lake - Brooke Blake and Daniel Czegledi.
Spokane County Fire District 10 - Christopher Adkins, Lane Bitz, Zachery Gee, Merrill Jeffery, Alexander Milsap, Tiffany Pope, Max Ramos, Julian Romanov and Matt Schiller.
Crew Leader Trainees
Airway Heights - Keis Bos, Carl McCauley and Trevor Mongeau.
Spokane County Fire District 10 - Brandon Morscheck, Brandon Stalker and Kelsey Wardsworth.
Award winners
Chief's Company - Trevor Mongeau, Charles Lott, Matt Schiller, Andrew Leander and Julian Romanov.
The Jake Award - Charles Lott.
Valedictorian - Matthew Bailey.
The Bulldog Award - Brooke Blake.
Most Improved - Zachery Gee.
The Bugle Award - Trevor Mongeau.
Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].
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