Behind the scenes of a firefighter training class for high schoolers

GOSHEN, Ind. (WSBT) — If you introduce high school students to firefighter training, you might spark an interest and fuel the careers of future first responders.

That is what is happening now at Goshen High School.

The school district is in its second year of offering firefighter training through its RedHawk Fire Academy.

Goshen High School students enrolled in the Fire Science class, start their school day the way professional firefighters start their workday.

“Every morning, just like the firehouse, they come in, they set their gear out,” says Travis Peak, the Division Chief of Education for the Goshen Fire Department.

Peak is also teaching at the RedHawk Fire Academy at Goshen Community Schools.

A Goshen High School student at the district’s RedHawk Fire Academy practices putting on firefighter gear. Over the course of the program, students receive classroom instruction and field-based training. (WSBT Photo)

After 22 years in the fire service, Peak knows a thing or two about being ready for a call.

“Just to do good for the community and help people out like we’re supposed to do,” says Peak about why he joined the fire service, “I am where I am supposed to be for sure.”

Now, he is teaching future first responders.

“What a better way to get interest into the career, than going to the high school and getting a hold of juniors and seniors, to hopefully spark interest and have them go to the career someday,” says Peak.

A Goshen High School student at the district’s RedHawk Fire Academy practices laying out their firefighter gear. Over the course of the program, students receive classroom instruction and field-based training. (WSBT photo)

The RedHawk Fire Academy and this CTE pathway at Goshen High School is a collaboration between the City of Goshen and Goshen Community Schools.

Peak is employed and paid by the City of Goshen and serves as an adjunct teacher for GCS.

The city also allows GCS to use the fire department equipment such as trucks and training facilities.

It is only in its second year, but at least two Goshen High School graduates are now working on local fire departments.

“CTE is college and career readiness. It’s not the old school vocational where you go right to work, it’s about dual credits, industry recognized certifications, and getting students prepared for whatever their next step is,” says Jon Everingham, Goshen Community Schools CTE Director.

Under the guidance of Travis Peak, the Division Chief of Education for the Goshen Fire Department, students at Goshen High School’s RedHawk Fire Academy receive real-world firefighter training. These students are practicing an unconscious victim rescue from a second-floor window. (WSBT Photo)

Peak says the state requires a person pass the Fire 1 Test, Hazmat Awareness Test, Azmat Operations Test and Fire 2 Test along with a long list of Job Performance Requirements before they can earn a certification to be hired at a fire department in Indiana.

He says by the time a student finishes the fire pathway at GCS, they will have the ability to pass all those requirements which could put them on a path toward being hired at a local fire department.

It is not only because of what they are learning, but also because of how it is being taught.

“We strongly consider our programs here as training facilities,” says Everingham.

Over the course of the program, students receive classroom instruction and field-based training.

Inside the Goshen’s Chandler Career and Technical Center, Peak says, the students can do almost everything they would do at the Goshen Fire Department’s training center.

The students train in a two-story training tower with real firefighting equipment.

On the day WSBT22 visited, students were practicing a victim rescue out of a second story building and onto a ladder.

Then later, they practiced pulling an unconscious victim through a wall.

The RedHawk Fire Academy and this CTE pathway at Goshen High School is a collaboration between the City of Goshen and Goshen Community Schools. The city also allows GCS to use the fire department equipment such as trucks and training facilities. (WSBT photo)

“They learn everything from throwing ladders, to breaking out windows, to victim rescues, to fire behavior,” says Peak.

Peak says once they have mastered skills inside Chandler Career and Technical center, they will train at Goshen Fire Department’s official training facility.

“When you get into a smoky, hot environment for the first time, if you don’t have that like previous training of, okay, I know I can’t see, I know it’s hot and it’s hard to move but control your breathing. Like, once you go through that practice, it helps you prepare and be ready,” says student Hazel Grubaugh.

A Goshen High School student at the district’s RedHawk Fire Academy practices putting on firefighter gear. Over the course of the program, students receive classroom instruction and field-based training. (WSBT Photo)

Grubaugh isn’t sure she wants to become a firefighter but thanks to this class, she says it is a realistic option.

“That is the complete goal, to is to have future firefighters,” says Peak, “but also, I have to say, I want to build good humans too. And, teach them good life skills a lot of them have never had or never seen before.”

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