MA Firefighter Recruits Use Shuttered School to Train

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QUINCY, MA—Classrooms may be closed across the city, but there were still 34 students getting schooled in West Quincy on Monday morning.

The Quincy Fire Department has been using the shuttered St. Mary's school and rectory as a staging ground for its fire academy for the last several weeks. They're the one group of students who don't get to stay home despite fears about coronavirus. Instead, the latest class of recruits is spraying hoses, climbing ladders, crawling through smoke and learning everything they need to know before hitting the streets as firefighters and emergency medical technicians.

"We try to make this as close to the real thing as we can under the circumstances," Capt. Joe Barron Jr. said Monday. "We're trying to teach them the foundations of being a firefighter, from operating pump to climbing a ladder, connecting to a hydrant and operating a hand line."

Quincy bought St. Mary's from the Archdiocese of Boston last year for $2.7 million. Eventually, the mayor wants to use the space for an elementary school, but the fire department has plans to use it in the meantime.

The city hired 35 new firefighters in January to beef up its roster and to fill the spots of those who've retired over the last several years, Barron said. One of the new hires was already a trained firefighter, but the other 34 will spend a total of 12 weeks at the academy to get their EMT and firefighter 1 and 2 certifications. The department has long operated its own fire academy, but until recently didn't have a place in town to call its own.

"Last time there was a real academy space it was in the shipyard," Barron said. "(Daniel) Quirk was nice enough to let us stay there until he really needed the space, but for the last three years we've been begging, borrowing and stealing a place to train. So when the city acquired this, it really couldn't have been better for us."

On Monday, the recruits were broken up into several groups practicing how to manage a hose, use and climb a ladder truck and maneuver massive ground ladders. Inside, groups of three worked their way through a simulated fire maze, navigating on their hands and knees through thick, water-based smoke, finding the source of a "fire," managing a heavy hose and helping a victim trapped inside a burning house — all in full gear.

"This is as real as we could make it without setting this building on fire," Barron said.

Health officials have warned against large gatherings and most of the nation's events, classes and more have been put on hold, but Barron said it wasn't an option to suspend firefighter training during the coronavirus outbreak. If anything, he said, the pandemic has made them need firefighters and EMTs more than ever.

"We're really glad to have these guys that we expect to have on the truck by Memorial Day, because there is a real possibility we'll start losing guys in the field due to exposure and quarantine," Barron said. "We'll need these guys to be able to fill those positions."

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