By ELENA MARSH
Staff Writer
The journey from novice student to trained firefighter is not an easy one. It takes hard work and more than a little courage. At Sandhills Community College, getting future firefighters ready to brave the blazes is just one of the school’s many curriculum offerings and one they don’t take lightly.
By the fall of next year, SCC is set to receive an updated emergency service training classroom facility in Carthage to welcome more students and bolster participation in an already growing program.
“ It’s really neat to have seen this (program) turn into what it has,” said Chad Thomason, director of the fire training program. “When we initially moved in, we weren’t sure what the classroom need was gonna be.”
As the program grew it became clear that what was once an afterthought on the list of necessary fire training buildings will now soon become a new classroom facility of nearly 7,000 square feet to replace the current classroom buildings from 2011.
“ It worked for us and over time we really just outgrew it,” said Thomason. “ We were pseudo meeting the demand of what we needed as far as classroom space, but we were having to get creative with moving classes to other places.
“Then the college decided to get rid of the temporary stuff and put in the permanent classroom. It’ll give us a lot more capability as far as the things we can do.”
The Larry R. Caddell Public Safety Training Center, at 333 Niagara-Carthage Road in Carthage, sits on a 40-acre site next to the old Carthage Fabrics plant and offers specialized training activities for both professionals and volunteers involved in area fire departments, sheriff’s departments, police departments and rescue squads.
Over a decade ago the $2.5 million training facility was funded by the 2000 state bond referendum and the 2007 Moore County bond referendum. At the time it included a 1.5-story residential burn building, a drafting pit, a four-story drill tower for rappelling and rescue simulations, a control tower and mobile classroom unit.
The SCC Board of Trustees named the center after Caddell, now a SCC board member and a former Moore County commissioner, because of his extensive public service to Moore County. Caddell was instrumental in helping the college acquire the land for the center by working with the Riddle family to purchase it through the Century Committee of Carthage. He has been a member of the board of trustees for more than 20 years.
The public safety division of the college’s Continuing Education program helps meet the training needs for local law enforcement, emergency medical personnel and fire departments by offering training classes, certification courses, seminars and other programs.
“ Our program is a job-ready program,” said Thomason. “So we take students with zero experience and we take ones that have experience. We have a student right now that’s getting ready to graduate who was a firefighter in Germany so he has experience, just in a different country.”
This year, the fire training program is getting ready to graduate its 25th class. Thompson and his instructors don’t just work with college students; a version of the program is also offered to high school students.
The high school academy hosts students from Union Pines, Pinecrest and North Moore. Juniors and seniors can come to the training center and get all of their firefighter certifications except for one class that has an age requirement of 18.
“ If the student is a part of a fire department like a volunteer, it’s free for tuition, it’s covered,” said Thomason who said that the program also offers night classes.
The property also features a burn building for students to train within as they get used to the heat and smoke in applicable ways.
The brick and cement building is built similarly to a fireplace. Inside, the temperature can get up to 1,000 degrees but the instructors never let it get that high for longevity of the training building.
“All of our instructors are firefighters somewhere else,” said Thomason. “We’re very particular on who we use as instructors to make sure we give the best student experience.”
When it comes to navigating a fire, teaching safety is a major priority, not just for protecting civilians that may be trapped in a burning building, but for the firefighters themselves.
“We bring them in, we talk them through what they’re experiencing and teach them that our gear will protect us as long as you take care of it and you don’t push your boundaries,” said Thomason.
“From there we go into where we start having them pull hose into the building and start working in that environment. Then rescuing dummies out of the environment and all that kind of stuff. So this building serves us really well because we can burn in almost every room.”
Other training tasks involve teaching the firefighters how to save their fellow firefighters as well as seek-and-find style exercises where an instructor will throw nuts, bolts and washers and ask the students to retrieve them from actively burning rooms.
“ You can’t always prepare people for everything the job holds,” said Thomason. “I’ve been a career firefighter for 26 years, you can try your best to prepare people but you really can’t teach them everything.
“We try to teach them the basics and we try to build upon those lessons in a manner of not looking to make you an expert in everything right now. We’re just trying to give you the keys where you’ll keep learning and keep growing and getting better.”
Students interested in the SCC Fire Training Program can contact Thomason at thomasonc@sandhills.edu. SCC is still accepting applications for the 26th Fire Training Class which will begin Jan. 12.
Contact Elena Marsh at (910) 693-2484 or elena@thepilot.com.
