Where There’s Smoke...

WALLA WAL- LA - More than once dur- ing her three months at the Walla Walla Regional Fire Academy this fall, Dayton's Heather Truitt's experience was a bit like trying to drink from a fire hydrant.

"I thought to myself 'I don't know if I can do this,'" the 22-year-old volunteer fire fighter said. "I didn't realize how much was involved."

It was intimidating at first, she said. Not only did she have to "step it up to keep up with the boys" physically, but the "homework" of reading and theory was just as daunt- ing, particularly since she was already pursuing an on- line bachelor's degree from Washington State University.

Thanks to the ongoing encouragement from Dayton fire fighter Cimarron Perkins, one of her academy trainers, she hung in there and completed the course, a statewide requirement to be certified as a Fire Fighter 1.

Last week, Truitt gradu- ated from the academy along with Dayton volunteer fire fighter Alex Eaton, Waits- burg recruit Dane Henze, two trainees from College Place and 10 from Walla Walla at a ceremony at the Walla Walla District 4 station. In its first five years as a regional acad- emy, the training program has graduated eight fire fight- ers from the Touchet Valley: six from Dayton and two from Waitsburg.

A Big Commitment

Instructors at the academy, which graduates 15 - 20 area fire fighters from the in-depth hands-on program each year, say the tough course tests the students' fire-fighting knowledge and teamwork skills. They say the young recruits' participation in the time-consuming program reflects a selfless dedication to their role as volunteer first responders.

"It's a huge commitment," said Bill Box, a Walla Walla District 4 lieutenant who is in charge of the Walla Wal- la-based training program. "They're do- ing a heck of a service to their community."

The course, which is taught at the District 4 station and other training venues three hours each Tuesday and Wednesday night for 12 weeks, covers everything from the physical science of fire "behavior" to the practi- cal challenge of handling fire hoses with gallons and gal- lons of water flowing through to them under pressure.

The students, put together in teams of three or four, spend blocks of time learning the proper use of ladders, fire truck tools, breathing gear and rope knots. Then, they have to face the simulated reality of searching a smoke- filled building, forcing pas- sage through doors or windows and squeezing through spaces of all configurations all suited up.

"For me, being a big guy, it was hard," said Henze, the Waitsburg trainee from District 2 (joint Columbia County and Walla Walla district) who measures 6' 7" in height and found maneuvering the plywood mazes in full gear in the dark by far the most difficult.

A Family Tradition

Two of the Touchet Valley students, Henze and Tru- itt, hail from families with long fire-fighting traditions. Dane's grandfather Carl Henze served as a volun- teer for District 2 for three decades, while the younger Henze's uncle Neil Henze has been on the force for more than 25 years.

"As a kid, when we visited grandpa, the (radio) scanner was always on," he said.

Hearing the emergency dispatch come on or the town's siren go off always gave Henze a rush of excitement during his stays in Waitsburg. When he moved to town from Aberdeen more than a year ago and was still looking for work, he went to one of the district's meet- ings at the Main Street fire station and filled out an application for a volunteer position.

"I had a lot of time," said Henze, who was voted in by the rest of the crew in No- vember 2011. "I had the in- terest (in volunteering) in the back of my mind for a while."

At first, he learned how to report to the fire station in a hurry, don the protec- tive gear, help control traffic around incidents scene and so on. Then, his district su- periors suggested he enroll in the academy so he could contribute to emergencies as a full-fledged fireman.

"They wanted me to go through it so I could do more stuff on fire calls," he said.

Henze embraced the opportunity wholeheartedly despite a fulltime job he had secured in Dayton and an online

Natural Resources master's degree program he had signed up for through Oregon State University by then.

For the small rural fire dis- tricts with limited resources, the academy is a huge benefi t because it exposes their volunteers to fire fighting experiences in a few months that would otherwise take them years to get on the job, Perkins said.

Truitt was even closer to the action when she grew up as the daughter of Toni Truitt, a fire fighter for 30 years and captain at Columbia County District 3, which covers Waitsburg and Columbia County. Her father, Mark Truitt, who works for Wash- ington State Parks, is equally dedicated as a volunteer through his role as reserve deputy for the Columbia County Sheriff's Depart- ment.

"Public service runs in the family," said Truitt, who graduated from Dayton High School in 2009 and eventual- ly wants to become a national parks ranger or go into law enforcement. "I remember growing up, my mom would often leave family events to go help someone else."

Mutual Aid

Aside from being around the district station with her mom, Truitt got her first hands-on exposure to fire fighting through the Explorer Post program for high school students, a which she joined for three years. Her mother is in charge of the nationwide program locally.

"That was the "outside" experience," she said about the kids' brush with the fun­damentals of fire fighting. "The academy was the "in­side" experience."

Truitt, who is also train­ing to become a certified ambulance driver, was one of three female graduates of the academy this year and immediately bonded with the other young women.

Building camaraderie and trust among fire fighters in the region is one of the academy's goals, said Box, who explained how the fire chiefs from Walla Walla and Columbia county districts got together five years ago to launch the 12-week program, which now draws recruits from Walla Walla, College Place, Touchet, Waitsburg, Dayton and Dixie.

"Operationally, trust is important because comfort levels are higher when fire fighters know each other," he said. On numerous occa­sions, particularly during the summer, districts fight field and structure fires together through mutual aide calls.

"It's like a separate fam­ily," said Truitt. "It's nice to know people have your back."

Henze and Eaton both compared their teamwork skills training in the academy to their experience as mem­bers of a basketball team, where everyone quickly learns it's easier to succeed when working together than working alone.

Since there can be quite an age range among the students (18 - 45), there's often a ben­eficial generational exchange as well, Box said. "It's kind of a cool interaction: the older guys help the younger guys with life experience. The younger guys help the older guys with enthusiasm."

Eaton, the other academy graduate from Dayton (DHS 2011), was the youngest in the academy at 19. A par­ticipant in the Explorer Post program, he's the first in his family to become a volunteer fire fighter but he had a num­ber of fire fighters as friends who helped inspire him to join the force.