Citizen's Fire Academy accepting applications

With less than one month until class starts, the Lewisville Citizen's Fire Academy has already filled half the spots for the 2013 class.

The free academy is open to Lewisville residents age 21 and older and is designed for people who have an interest in fire department operations and fire and life safety awareness. The 10-week program starts March 6. Classes meet from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday evenings, and one Saturday on April 6 from 9 to 11 a.m., at Central Fire Station, 188 N. Valley Parkway. All classes will be at Central Fire Station except the rescue class, which will be held at Brad's Towing; dive operations class, which will be held at station two and the graduation ceremony at the training field.

"This academy provides a good insight to how things work within in the department," said Division Chief Mark Richards. "It will explain why fire trucks go along medical emergencies, among other behind-the-scenes department information. Once they complete the academy, graduates get a certificate of completion and can ride along with the fire department."

The program covers fire operations such as how the department functions, the history of fire service, station tours and a dispatch center tour. Participants will also become CPR certified, learn about fire investigations and witness EMS procedures where they will do hands-on exercises to see how firefighters remove people from cars. Richards said during the Saturday class, participants will go out to the towing yard and do a vehicle extraction class.

"It gives people a chance to use the Jaws of Life," Richards said. "This course is not very physical. You don't have to do hands-on if you don't feel comfortable. Some people will want to hold the Jaws of Life, which weighs 80 pounds, and some won't. We always have instructors there to demonstrate, so people don't have to handle the equipment if they don't want to. We've even had people in wheel chairs who just wanted to watch everything."

The program also includes a dive operations class where participants will see the Lewisville Fire Department dive team put on operation where they dive in darks water at night.

"That will show people just how hard it is to do a dive rescue in the lake," Richards said. "The program also includes a class on the support functions. We have a communications RV where the command post is set up during some calls. People will get to see the inside of that and how it works."

During one of the final classes, participants will spend time with the department's emergency management coordinator, Summer Wilhelm. On the final class, May 1, participants will do a live activity in the training field. They'll get their hands-on fire hoses, ride on the trucks and complete a simulation of a fire.

"Instructors for the classes are actual firefighters, who are on duty but out of service. We try to make them available during those two hours while someone covers for them," Richards said. "We try to make this program fun for everyone. We want the graduates to be wowed by the academy."

Class space is limited to 20-25 people. Richards said if there are more participants, the hands-on approach suffers. So far 10 people have signed up, but Richards said this week there's usually a flood of applicants.

For information on the Citizen's Fire Academy and to apply, call Richards at 972-219-3595 or visit www.cityoflewisville.com or email mrichards@cityoflewisville.com.

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