Readying Rookies

Rogers Recruits Undergo 18 Weeks Of Training

David Williams, left, and Bryan Bingham, right, both Rogers rookie firefighters, listen Tuesday to Capt. Dusty Qualls explain a house search during the department’s 12-week school for new firefighters. The search instruction was at a vacant house on South C Street slated for demolition.
David Williams, left, and Bryan Bingham, right, both Rogers rookie firefighters, listen Tuesday to Capt. Dusty Qualls explain a house search during the department’s 12-week school for new firefighters. The search instruction was at a vacant house on South C Street slated for demolition.

ROGERS — Eight Rogers Fire Department recruits stood with hands behind their heads waiting for the signal to pull on their firefighting gear.

The first finished in 1 minute and 12 seconds, the second in 1 minute and 13 seconds. By the end of their training, they will be able to get into the gear — from boots to mask to gloves — in 1 minute and 10 seconds, Capt. Josh Chapman, of the department’s Training Division, told the group Tuesday.

Probationary firefighters in the Rogers program must undergo 18 weeks of training. The 10-week firefighter academy starts in mid-April. Rogers firefighters are attending a five-week preliminary course before moving on to the academy, then three weeks of driver training.

Web Watch

Rogers Fire Department

For more about the Rogers Fire Department, visit www.rogersarkansas.com/fire.

Rookies are challenged physically and mentally, said Capt. Dennis Thurman of the Training Division. He described the first five weeks as “shock and awe.” The five-week pre-academy covers almost everything included in the 10-week standards course.

“It really is kinda full speed ahead,” Thurman said.

If a Rogers candidate makes it through 18 weeks of training, their name will go on a banner on the wall. There are four names on the 2009 banner, seven on the 2010 banner and six on the 2011 and 2012 banner.

Tuesday marked seven days in training.

This class is diverse, Thurman said. Four of the eight recruits have military experience, and although all are required to have basic emergency medical technician certification, two are already certified as paramedics. Three have previous firefighter training, one is a chemical engineer and another a former Razorback baseball player.

Bryan Bingham has lived in Texas and Oklahoma City, but is enthusiastic about the training he’s getting in Rogers.

“We’re getting the best training that is out there,” Bingham said.

Bingham lived in Arkansas before, when he played baseball with the University of Arkansas Razorback baseball team during the 2008-09 season.

Still, he ranks the physical fitness part of the training the hardest part of the pre-academy.

Mornings start with a Crossfit-style program, and the day ends with more physical training. During the last academy, one recruit shaved 7 1/2 minutes off his mile and a half run, Thurman said. Most of their drills are completed in 50 pounds of gear.

The average recruit will cut his body fat in half during the training, Chapman said.

“It's like fighting an eight-hour fire because it's all day,” Chapman said of training.

In class they learn about how fires behave, the protective equipment they will use and, behind the training center, there is a playground of obstacles where rookies learn to not use up all their air.

On Tuesday, a crew from the department’s Station No. 5 walked the rookies through ways to pull, drag and carry downed victims or firefighters. Rogers trucks carry a color-coded sling, looping red webbing around a victim’s legs, yellow around his arms and dragging him by a green strap, but firefighters demonstrated a dozen different ways to loop webbing around a victim in order to purchase a hand hold. There may not be time for webbing, an instructor said, telling recruits to do what it takes to get a victim out of a bad situation.

During the 10-week academy, Fayetteville and Springdale rookies will join the Rogers group and, for the first time, students in the fire science class at NorthWest Arkansas Community College will join recruits to earn the Firefighter I and II certifications they need for credit.

David Williams trained last year as a firefighter from Siloam Springs during the 10-week course. After landing a job in Rogers, he needed to take the five-week Rogers pre-academy course.

“It's a little bit more intense,” Williams said.

Bingham said he loves the team aspect of firefighting. Williams said he likes the challenge of the training. When he trained last year, he learned that he could get through more than he thought he could.

“You can’t push yourself to go through these kinds of things, you need someone to push you,” he said.

Upcoming Events