Pleasant Hills VFC presents inaugural citizens fire academy

Plenty of youngsters dream of donning helmets, flame-resistant suits and other necessities for battling blazes.

Some adults apparently do, too. And Pleasant Hills Volunteer Fire Company is providing a hands-on opportunity for them to give the basics a try.

“I am learning a lot,” Amber Kramer said. “I got to shoot a hose, and it was pretty exciting. You don’t realize how much pressure it actually gives you.”

She and her mother, Kevin Stiegler, are among the participants in the company’s inaugural Citizens Fire Academy, which began Sept. 4 and continues on Thursdays into mid-October.

“The whole idea was to get residents involved where they can come, get hands on and learn about things that will also help them at home,” Chief Jim Rush said.

For example, academy topics include proper use of ladders and extinguishers, handling Jaws of Life, applying cardiopulmonary resuscitation and how to mitigate bleeding.

“All the cadets will leave here with a tourniquet so they can have at home, and hopefully, they’ll never have to use it,” Rush said. “But if they have to, they’ve been trained. It can stop someone’s bleeding and potentially save someone’s life.”

Another facet of the academy is a means for recruitment, according to the chief.

“Thirty years ago, we would get 30 people for a structure fire in the borough,” he said. “Today, you might get seven to nine.”

The hope is that participants’ involvement in firefighting activities prompts some of them to take it to the next level.

“If this program ends up where we have some cadets who then want to further their training and join our department, that option will be there for them. We can assist them in getting the essentials of firefighting and actually become a full-fledged member,” Rush said. “But if they don’t want to do that, that’s OK, too.

For Mark Vergallito, taking part in the academy is an eye-opening experience.

“We take for granted the volunteer fire company here in our community, and this is giving us a chance to learn much more about it, how it’s all put together, who the great folks are who are there to help us when things are not going great,” he said. “To me, it’s fascinating, and I had no idea about some of the aspects of it.”

During the Sept. 11 session, he and fellow cadets took turns tapping a fire hydrant under the direction of Joseph Persichetti, the company’s assistant chief.

“There’s much more to it: the water pressure, the length of the hose, the size of the hose, the friction in the water lines,” Vergallito said. “It’s a lot, and these guys have developed quite a bit of skill to be able to use the equipment properly.”

Other educational aspects for the evening included engine-pumping operations and an introduction to self-contained breathing apparatuses, conducted by Capt. Mike Moeslin.

The academy will wrap up with a graduation ceremony, at which participants will be presented with plaques and photos commemorating their month and a half as quasi-firefighters.

“It’s a good learning experience,” Kramer said, “and I think it’s a good thing to do in the community.”