Prezanne's Beginnings: Old Lady Leary

I have been asked quite a bit how Preston is doing with the Fire Academy. I figured I would post about it to update you all on how it’s going. While I keep really busy, his part of our life is much more interesting than anything I am keeping busy with anyway.

The Academy started back at the beginning of January. The first day he came home with all his turn outs (fire fighter gear) and SCBA. He was made captain of his company due to the fact that he was the fastest to put on all of the turnouts correctly for the first time. He didn’t only beat his entire class, but the Fire Chief said that was the fastest he has ever seen a newbie do it. They called him “Mr. 36” that first day (the time it took him to dress). Now his whole company can do it under 30 sec… (The rest of the groups are considerably slower.)

I would say that Preston still holds the same level of excitement for the whole thing now as he did when he started, if not more. He comes home after every class excited to tell me what new things they learned. Of course he likes the physical aspect of the class more (usually), but he really is learning a lot. I am always surprised at how well he retains information, and he is doing well on his tests and quizzes. He does very well on the physical tests, and okay on the written ones. His written final is actually coming up this Saturday! The rest of the academy (ending the first week in April) will be spent in training on operations and procedures outside of the class room.

I will also mention that Preston’s company is standing out much more than the others. They all really have worked hard to become the best they can, and excel. Preston is a strong kinesthetic learner, and picks up most physical things relatively quickly. There is another guy in his group that is the same way. It’s actually kind of eerie how similar they are (they even look alike!)! The female in the group can hold her own too. She was in wildland fire for years before doing this academy, and apparently knows chain saws better than anyone. The other two guys are easy to work with too, and are willing to put in the extra time to keep up.

A few weeks ago they had a change with their company. Since their company was excelling so far ahead of the rest of the groups, the professors decided to move one of the weakest links into their group to try and whip him into shape. Apparently he is an older gentleman who has a hard time listening. They said if Preston’s group couldn’t whip him into shape he was a goner. They are trying to make it work.

Feel free to ask him how its going! He has lots of stories and gets really excited to tell people the stuff he is learning!

Anyway, that’s how the Fire Academy is going… Now here are a lot of pictures and videos from a month ago. This is from the first couple weeks that Preston was in the academy. We all decided that we wanted to see how fast we could put on all the turnouts. Granted, they really only fit Preston and Matt. The rest of us look a little small for them. Of course none of us came close to Preston’s first run of 36 seconds…

Here's a LOT of syrup for all that waffle goodness...