Ten Recruits Start Fire Training

Thu., March 9, 2000

By Trinity Hartman trinityh@spokesman.com

Ten recruits started a nine-week journey which could end in them becoming Valley firefighters.

Nearly 600 people applied for 10 openings with the Spokane Valley Fire District.

Recruits passed physical and written tests and got a nod of approval from Fire Chief Pat Humphries to get this far.

From now until they graduate from the Spokane Regional Fire Recruit Training Academy on May 5, the recruits will learn both the theory and practice behind fighting fires and emergency medical service rescues.

The journey can be a grueling one, but most recruits graduate, said training instructor Lt. Bruce Hamner.

“We do everything in our power to get them to graduate,” he said. “We don’t throw them to the wolves.”

All seven of last year’s recruits graduated and all but one of them made it through a 12-month probation.

Last week, this year’s Valley Fire recruits were given emergency medical technician tests and evaluations.

On Wednesday, they joined 17 other recruits from around the county to begin the nine-week training program at the fire academy.

They will fight their first practice fire on Friday.

The 10 Valley recruits are: John Shippe, Thomas Cook, Sean Barrett, Ryan VanWey, Greg Bennett, Richard Bruce, Jason LaJiness, Richard Llewellyn, John Kelleher and Darrin Coldiron.

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