While some Grade 11 and 12 students may have spent their summer break on a beach somewhere, or even playing video games at home, a group of youth from across the Coast attended the fourth annual School District 46’s Junior Fire Fighter Academy, learning invaluable life skills.
Sechelt Fire Department hosted the program at its training centre on Mason Road, but it was seasoned firefighters from across the entire Coast, including members of the BC Wildfire Service,who lent their time to help instruct the students and facilitate training. Together, those skilled instructors shared 322 collective years of experience, said Steven Achterberg, deputy chief of prevention for Sechelt Fire Department.
The intricacies of wildfire fighting intrigued several of the students, who said they're like to get involved once they graduate high school.
Under the proud watch of parents and guardians on March 29, the students gathered one final time at the centre to demonstrate the skills they’d learned. During the graduation event, the students entered a burning building, and used sophisticated equipment to cut apart a crashed car to extract adult and baby sized dummies.
The 2025 graduation class of the School District 46’s Junior Fire Fighter Academy includes, Hannah Garden, Charlie Garden, Lucca Hagerman, Finnegan Swan Wall, Pulkit Grover, Jakob Helfer, Caleb Howard, Kalen Zayshley, Owen Wainwright, Julien Wiese, Madeline VanderStelt, Justin Blake, Morgan Redman and Shyne Trainor.
