The fitness and drills at fire training academies are grueling even for those who feel they're in top shape. Imagine doing it on one leg.
That's just what is happening at the Suffolk Fire & Rescue Training Academy.
Chris Heater, a former U.S. Marine, told WAVY he kept his secret from fellow recruits. At 33, he's also the oldest in the class. “It makes it a little rougher trying to compete with the young guys...I hid it from them for the longest time that I didn’t have a leg.”
He recalled his first interview: “Chief Barackey and Chief Adam actually laughed because I showed up to my interview with no leg on. I was actually on crutches. I think I was a couple of weeks out of surgery.”
Lieutenant Durand Coltrane, who oversees Suffolk Firefighter Recruit Training, explained: “We put them in confined spaces. We put them at heights where they have probably never been, 100 feet on a ladder."
Lt. Coltrane said his team was excited to meet him after they learned he only had one leg. “I heard he was prior military as well as many of us here at the fire department. So, I was rooting for him.”
Heater pointed out he was ready for the training to become a firefighter: “My biggest thing was I didn’t want to be treated different. I just want to be the same as everybody else. I don’t want them to be like, ‘Oh, he’s only got one leg.'”
And, he impressed and inspired the instructors who kept his secret.
“He went through what we call ‘The Worm’ one time, and we literally said, ‘You’re going to get out of here even if you have to lose a limb. You have to get out of here to save your life.’ And when he went through the worm, he actually lost his leg in there, but he kept working, and got through it, and got out of there with his team. He turned around and helped the rest of his team get out of there. So, that’s commendable.”
Heater always had his eyes on the fire department. “I actually grew up watching Backdraft. So, I don’t know. It was just always a calling...but, you know, 9/11 happened and I was in the 8th grade, so I joined the Marine Corps instead.”
He spent 14 years in the service. In 2018, he fell 25 feet in a non-combat related incident.
After a year of rehab, doctors at Walter Reid had to amputate his right leg below the knee.
“You start to really think, like, this is probably it. I’m done. You know? You see a lot of vets that just can’t get forward, so you have to figure out what you’re going to do. You get into Walter Reed and those guys up there, they’re world class. They really start to take care of you, and the mindset changes when you’re up there.”
As class president, he is expected to speak at graduation in three weeks.
When things get tough and dark, he says: “There’s always light at the end of the tunnel.”
