One Gulfport firefighter recruit says this year's Fire Prevention Week is providing him extra motivation to complete the academy and begin his firefighting career.
“I don’t think there’s a single firefighter that would say the risk isn’t worth it,” Mark Cormier told WLOX. “I always felt like I should give back to the community in some way, and I felt like being a firefighter is one of those that’s going to help out.”
“We’ll 100% be ready to risk everything it is a definite reward,” the 24-year-old recruit said.
The academy class started last month and will graduate next month.
“There’s a lot of kids out there right now who [aspire to] one day be in the exact position that they’re in,” Training Chief Eric Valles said. “We train these guys hard we can’t train them for every possible scenario that they might face, but we give them a pretty strong baseline.”
“Our community relies on us no matter what the problem is they expect us to be able to perform,” he said. “To get them physically ready, mentally ready and emotionally ready for that is extremely important.”
