by Joel Addington
Contributing Writer
David Szarmack could handle the 12-hour days, rappelling off buildings and running around with 50 pounds of gear while surrounded by flames. What did throw the 28-year-old father and husband, though, was getting up in front of his friends, family and others during his graduation from fire school.
“I’m excited,” he said, “but nervous to be in front of a bunch of people with all the eyes on me. It (graduating) is a good feeling, but I’m ready for it to be over with.”
Szarmack was one of 17 recruits who received their diplomas, badges and assignments last night after completing 14 weeks of classroom instruction and field training at the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department’s Training Center off Alden Road.
The members of Class 107 were the first graduates to benefit from a new training program that included a firefighter survival component that teaches fireman how to save their own lives.
“It shows them how to exit a rapidly deteriorating environment and also help others get out if they find somebody,” said six-year instructor Lt. Todd Smith. “We’ve never taught that before to anybody formally. It makes them potentially the safest firefighters they can be.”
He added it’s not always about being the toughest or the strongest.
“It’s about being the smartest,” said Smith. “We’re producing a smarter, better qualified firefighter today than we ever have before.”
The graduates will be assigned to a fire suppression division, either on a fire truck or ladder truck, somewhere in the city, said Training Division Chief Eleanor Byrd. She said the new recruits will fill existing vacancies within the department left by retiring firefighters.
“But we’ll still have more (vacancies),” she said.
After a year in the suppression division, the rookies will be eligible to request transfers to other divisions like search and rescue or hazardous materials, two divisions that have been very busy in recent weeks with the collapse of the Berkman Plaza 2 parking garage Downtown and Wednesday’s chemical plant explosion at T2 Laboratories on the Northside.
Byrd said the disasters “reflect the specialized training we provide in addition to fire suppression and emergency medicine.”
In addition to hazardous materials and search and rescue training, the new recruits also received lessons in high-angle rescues, ground operations, emergency vehicle operations and extrication.
“This has been the longest, toughest recruit training the department has ever done,” said Smith.
Class 107 is the first group of new recruits to come through the training center in two years. The small group of graduates was selected from more than 500 applicants.
“It’s not a job for everybody, but for certain people it’s the job,” said Smith, adding that a number of recruits suffered injuries during training. They included a sprained ankle, scorpion bite and lacerated cornea.
“They never used the words I can’t or I won’t,” said Smith. “We asked for 110 percent and they gave us 150.”
For Szarmack – like most of the recruits – the training itself wasn’t as difficult as being away from his pregnant wife and two small children at home. Many days stretched from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“It was hard all-around,” he said. “But being away from my wife and kids was the worst part. They’d all be asleep by the time I got home and then I had to study for that week’s test.”
It was a sacrifice, said Szarmack, “but it’s been worth it.”