NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 29, 1999

ELEVEN TO GRADUATE FIRE ACADEMY
AT CARY CEREMONY

CARY, NC – Eleven Cary firefighters will be honored in a Fire Academy graduation ceremony tonight at 7:30 PM in the Cary Community Center. To graduate, recruits must pass all written and practical tests as well as meet the physical fitness requirements. This class brings Cary’s total number of firefighters to 122. The Town plans to hire an additional 19 firefighters in a few weeks.

"The benefit of recruit training to our community is that when the firefighters go on shift, they actively participate in the mitigation of emergency incidents," said Division Chief Todd Wright. "Without this training, they could only watch experienced firefighters work emergency incidents."

The 800 hours of Cary’s Fire Academy recruit training prepares firefighters to survive the emergencies they will face once on shift and includes 44 individual class subjects as well as a daily physical fitness program. Training topics include emergency rescue, firefighting, the Wake County Incident Command System, radiological monitoring, HAZMAT operations, and domestic terrorism.

Cary’s Fire Academy has been in place for about 15 years, evolving tremendously during that time. Approximately 160 firefighters have been through recruit training over the last 15 years.

While at the Academy, the trainees are refereed to as "recruits". All graduating firefighters have the rank of Firefighter. Once they graduate from the Academy, they are referred to as "Rookies" through the completion of their first year of employment.

Graduating tonight are: Scott Inman, Brad Still, Chris Webb, Bill Bolen, Jamie Olive, Lillian Royal, Todd Dollar, James Forsyth, Chris Young, Andrew Edwards, and Andy Hiscock.

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