Firefighting U

There’s one course at Valley College that’s truly hot.

No wimps need apply.

The Fire Technology program trains students for jobs as firefighters, graduating them from classroom instruction to real fires.

At a cost of $400 for equipment, students are put through tough training and sent out to climb hills, clear brush and fight fires in searing heat.

Why?

“The students’ goal is to become a firefighter anywhere they can get on,” said Karl Smith, the program’s director.

It works, he said.

“In June of this year, we placed 17 firefighters in full-time jobs throughout the state and one in Colorado,” Smith said.

Most of those applying are college-age men determined to become firefighters. But not all.

In the current class, called Crew 70, there’s Al Munguia, a wiry 47-year-old former auto mechanic. He’s married and the father of three children and yet he climbs hills and cuts a fire line with the determination and energy of a 20-year-old.

“The work is hard, but I can do it. I try to stay in good shape,” Munguia said. “I grew up in Texas and Arizona and have always wanted to be a firefighter.”

Sandra McCall, 32, who used to be an office worker, is the only woman on the crew.

“I feel that I am getting experience and learning how to work with the team,” she said. “I want to get my name and my work out where people can see it. I can compete.”

The $400 class fee buys personal gear, including backpack, canteens, a helmet with protective ear and neck shrouds, and some very expensive boots.

“I tell the students that you need to invest in your career,” Smith said.

The gear, along with additional equipment provided by the U.S. Forest Service, is stored at Valley College.

Before students can don the equipment and join a Forest Service crew, they must pass classroom and physical tests. The 80 hours of classes include lectures on fire behavior and equipment operation, followed by a grueling physical test carrying a backpack.

Those who pass are placed in a standby manpower pool for the Forest Service. When their pagers go off they collect their gear at the school and head for their first fire, which could be anywhere in the United States, U.S. possessions, Canada or Mexico. The crews are transported to fires by chartered Forest Service buses or planes, and can find themselves away from home for as long as three weeks.

They may be paid as little as $9 an hour. The students manage financially, Smith said. “Some of them live with their parents, others have jobs that will let them off during the fire season and others have spouses who work and can pay the bills.”

Danger is a given.

In 1996, the latest year for which figures are available, 92 American firefighters were killed on the job. In 1997, about 87,100 U.S. firefighters were injured on the job, 4,200 seriously enough to require hospitalization, according to the National Fire Protection Assn.

Crew 70 got the call for their first 1998 fire on June 21, the day after a 400-acre brush fire erupted in San Francisquito Canyon in Saugus, allegedly set off by illegal fireworks.

The crew’s job, under the watchful eyes of two full-time firefighter trainers, was to “cold-trail” the fire ground, looking for still-smoldering embers that could flare and restart the blaze.

For crew leader Lee Castillos, 20, the program offers a chance to “have something that maybe somebody else doesn’t have.”

Castillos said when a member of this class interviews with a fire department for a job, he or she can cite their Forest Service firefighting experience and it’s hoped the interviewers will “see that you are more interested and want it more than the next guy.”

For Nick Pellegrini, 20, who is in his second year at Valley College, “It’s a chance to give back to the community.”