When Brent Cunningham became the chief of the Waretown Volunteer Fire Department, in Ocean County, NJ, one of his first acts was to start a Junior Fire Academy. Cunningham, who also served as an elementary school teacher, had always dreamed of ways to provide some meaningful summer programs for the area children that would also involve the fire department.
The local police department had been running a Junior Police Academy for several years and Cunningham and the fire department would pitch in by bringing an engine and a crew to their location to do some quick demonstrations. So, why not start a Junior Fire Academy?
The Ocean County Fire Academy is located in Waretown and would provide the perfect backdrop for the junior academy. After some discussions and planning meetings with his firefighters, Cunningham decided that they could feasibly take on the task of putting it together.
“I was a little apprehensive about the idea at first,” Cunningham admits. “And not because I thought it wouldn’t succeed, but because I was worried that I would be asking too much from the membership who already give a tremendous amount.”
Since Waretown is a volunteer department, Cunningham wasn’t sure he would be able to recruit enough members to safely run the program, particularly during the summer months when many members take on seasonal work here at the nearby Jersey Shore.
“But, from the very beginning, we have had an average of 12 firefighters volunteering each day and evening of our program to help it succeed,” he says. “Most of them work 3–4 nights of the academy and some, including the ones assigned to be battalion chiefs at the academy, volunteer all five nights. This is truly the aspect that made any of this idea a success.”
Once he had buy-in from the department and its members, all Cunningham needed was students. They passed out flyers at the local schools and Cunningham created a Facebook page to help promote the academy. In the very first year they had 40 recruits sign up.
“That first year was exhilarating and challenging,” he recalls. “Challenging in the sense that we moved into this large-scale program without much of a test-run…we truly hit the ground running.”
As with anything new, they did run into some issues that required changes and quick-fixes. But, as Cunningham is quick to point out, in the fire service, everyone is quite adept at changing plans on a moment’s notice, and the problems were resolved rather quickly.
“It was exhilarating in the sense that it worked, and it worked well,” he says. “The firefighters working the training areas, special guests who volunteered their time, the recruits, and the community as a whole really made the plan come together in a way I had hoped, but didn’t fully envision until it was happening in the moment.”
The response from the recruits was an immediate desire to engage in the activities and accomplish more each day. The heat and hard work took their toll during that first year, but the recruits always came back with an eagerness to tackle the activities of the next day. In fact, Cunningham says one of the true barometers of the event was the number of recruits who requested to return the next year to become “junior instructors” for the younger division of recruits. And the firefighters all found it equally engaging.
“I think that at the heart of many firefighters is the desire to teach what they are passionate about: firefighting,” Cunningham says. “And this gave the opportunity to not only teach, but to teach an entire group who are dedicated to learning, which is a rarity. The following year, the number of firefighters offering to help drastically increased, as well.”
A day in the life
In the beginning, the Waretown Junior Fire Academy took place during daytime hours, but that put a large strain on the firefighters since they are a volunteer agency. Cunningham says it also was challenging for the recruits and parents to make pick-up/drop-off work (not to mention the heat!). The decision was made to move the operating time to Monday through Friday from 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. Cunningham says this resulted in cooler temperatures, slightly less of a risk of the summertime pop-up thunderstorms (which really create issues for an operation that is primarily an outdoor, hands-on activity), and allowed a lot more of the recruits and volunteer firefighters to assist.
All recruits entering the academy receive uniforms, PPE (safety glasses, gloves and helmet), accountability tags, and assignments within Divisions, Battalions and Companies. Throughout the week, each group works together to attend classroom lectures on topics including fire department history, fire behavior and communications. They also receive instruction from special guests within the fire service each night. These guests can include the regional Hazmat Team, RIT teams, New Jersey Forest Fire Service, EMS and the Ocean County Fire Marshal’s Office.
A typical evening begins with roll call and a briefing of the night’s activities. The recruits then head out to the training grounds for some light PT and drill and ceremony. Following that, the three groups would go to one of the three training areas of the night: hands-on station, special guest, and classroom/secondary hands-on station. Each group works at the training area for about 50 minutes and then they rotate. Each night the crews also complete hands-on tasks (stretching and charging hoselines, connecting and charging hydrants, forcible entry, ladders search, etc.).
At the end of the night, the academy typically holds a short competition between groups based upon one of the hands-on stations of the evening. For example, on the first night, there is usually a timed race for the recruits of each group to unroll two doughnut-rolled lengths of 1¾-inch hoseline, attach them to one another, attach a nozzle to one end and the other end to a discharge on the engine. Then the first battalion who knocks down three cones with the stream wins.
As the event grew over the years, Cunningham says they created two Divisions. One for older students (7th grade and up) and one for younger students (4th-6th grade). Each Division is divided into three Battalions, and each Battalion is further divided into two Engine Companies, one Truck Company, and one Rescue Company. They use real radios, real hoselines, and all real hand tools (where permissible) during their trainings.
On the final night, after a short graduation ceremony, a competition night is held in which the engine companies stretch and charge hoselines to extinguish mock fires (cones) inside the facility’s burn building, while the rescue and truck companies throw ladders, force entry and search the structure for victims.
There are certain safety rules in place to protect the recruits. Cunningham says they strictly adhere to the major rules: no climbing of ladders capable of extending to 35 feet or greater (they stick to 24-foot extension ladders, and they only raise it two rungs), no use of hydraulic tools, and no access to any of the buildings during any live-fire operations. The recruits are only allowed to use the hand tools and hoselines with all their PPE donned and there is always a minimum of three certified firefighters at each training area for supervision.
Moving forward
Unfortunately, COVID caused the Waretown Junior Fire Academy to shut down in 2020 and 2021. But, with proper safety protocols and guidelines in place, it is returning to operation in August of 2022. And it is returning bigger and better than ever.
Cunningham says they began that first year with roughly 40 recruits during our one-week academy.
“By our most recent Class (2019), we grew into a two-week academy of about 130 recruits split into two separate Divisions based upon age,” he reports. “Since we don’t require recruits to live in our town, we’ve had recruits from all over Ocean County, the rest of New Jersey, and even Pennsylvania. Our department has even adapted our by-laws to allow any applicants who have completed three years of the Junior Fire Academy to join as Junior Members at 15 years old. Additionally, we have created a Junior Instructor program for the academy, which allows recruits from Division 1 (the older age group) to return during Division 2 to assist with instructing/overseeing recruits. During the 2019 class, we had roughly 20 Junior Instructors.”
When asked why he wanted to share their story with Firehouse, Cunningham said he simply wanted to help any other departments build a similar program.
“My goal for our program was to provide an engaging, safe, and meaningful experience in the fire service for local children. The hope behind each class was that someone would find that they truly loved this vocation and would seek it out in the future. My goal in sharing the story is to spark that same idea in the minds of any other interested firefighters who may read this and provide some evidence that it is indeed possible to orchestrate.
“In addition to the phenomenal support from our firefighters, I relied upon the kindness and helpfulness of countless agencies in order to even get this idea off the ground. And they all came through in an amazing way to make this happen. In an attempt to somehow pass that kindness off to anyone else, I encourage anyone who is seeking guidance in establishing a program like this to not hesitate to contact me for any assistance I can offer.”
For more information on the Waretown Junior Fire Academy, visit their website or email Cunningham.
