Student Builders Nail a Firefighting Project

A construction class is turning its newly found skill to an unusual project: building a portable structure that firefighters and their canine unit will use for training exercises.

With three weeks until their deadline, students in the Capistrano-Laguna Beach Regional Occupational Program session are scrambling to complete the training facility’s collapsible walls, breakaway floorboards and crawl space known as the “rat’s maze.

The project, commissioned by the Ontario Airport Fire Department for urban search and rescue exercises, is the most elaborate his classes have tackled, teacher Mike Beekmansaid.

“We do a lot of projects for a lot of people,” he said. “It’s a win-win situation because they get a building cheap and the students get real experience.”

Beekman said his students, who range in age from 14 to 50, were offered the job after Ontario fire representatives saw a canine training facility the class had made last year for the Orange County urban search and rescue team.

The students have also built a disaster shelter for R.H. Dana Elementary School in Dana Point and a mental health-care center at Las Palmas Elementary School in San Clemente.

With year-round classes that enroll 15 to 20 students each, the construction training program offers people a chance to “decide what they want to do, if they like construction or not,” Beekman said.

Capistrano Valley student Jose Valadez, 17, is among those working on the Ontario project. He said he plans to choose a construction trade after he graduates from high school and has benefited in two ways from the occupational training.

“It’s a fun class to be in,” Valadez said, and students gain practical experience. “You get to work with your hands and build things.”