When Bill Pearson was tapped to run a new fire academy at the then Tarrant County Junior College in 1989, he was in the midst of his career with the Fort Worth, TX, Fire Department, and years after he retired, this role keeps him involved with the fire service he loves.
On Saturday, the day after Tarrant County College’s (TCC) Fire Service Training Center celebrated the graduation of their 100th daytime recruit class, graduates, former faculty and former and current instructors came together to celebrate the milestone and reflect on how the fire service, firefighter training and education has evolved.
In the late 1980s, with the Fort Worth area growing, the college wanted to add a full fire academy to help train local fire department recruits and those seeking fire service jobs for the skills they needed.
After a few phone calls, they began talking with Pearson, a former Granbury, TX, high school teacher and coach of both basketball and football. He left the education field to become a Fort Worth firefighter in 1980.
Pearson was no stranger to teaching fire recruits – twice he worked at Fort Worth Engine 31 - which was the city’s fire academy for many years. There, recruits used the station to understand station life, the classroom to learn skills, the training tower to hone their skills and rode along with Engine 31’s crews, working alongside some of the city’s best firefighters.
The move to the college was a natural fit for him.
“It was amazing. We had a humble start with our classroom in small office space,” Pearson recalled. “It was due to the vision of the administration, the desire to make a facility that would serve the fire community.”
They used a classroom in the primary education building and received a well-used donated pumper with Class 1 starting in October 1989 and graduating in February 1990. They also had a small training tower at the campus, in northwest Fort Worth.
Flower Mound, TX, Battalion Chief Scott Funderburg, a member of Class 1 that graduated in 1990, was there Saturday. Months after he graduated, he was hired by the Colleyville, TX, Fire Department because he already had the training.
“It's amazing and I appreciate what they did in 1989 to give me a chance to start my career and I'm fixing to hit 33 years in the fire service," Funderburg said at the celebration. “It's been an honor to be in Class 1 and to get the knowledge and, and then to come back and see what they're doing.”
“I can remember coming out here when we'd go to the burn tower in Arlington and we were burning tires and mattresses to make black smoke, which that wouldn't happen anymore,” he said.
Pearson, whose title is Coordinator of the Basic Firefighter Training program, said the academy’s reputation quickly caught on in the early 1990s and departments would send sponsored (paid by the department) recruits. Others who wanted jobs in smaller departments would pay for the academy out of their own pocket (non-sponsored) to get their careers started.
“It was the instructors who made it a successful program,” Pearson said. “Fire departments saw that our students were passing the state test, so they would start sending their students out here.”
Since Class 1, the college has run 100 daytime academies with a total of 2,478 students graduating. They have also run 17 nighttime academies and several hybrid/weekend academies. Both Class 1 and Class 100 had a total of 24 recruits graduate.
Pearson says he has seen sons of fathers whom he taught, the daughter of a recruit he taught and the son of a mother who went through the academy.
“Sometimes they’ll come up to me and say they were in a class, but I don’t remember their name. If I do remember their name, it probably was not a good thing,” Pearson said with a laugh.
Graduates have gone on to serve as fire chiefs across the state and beyond, school officials boasted.
A handful of today’s adjuncts instructors went through the TCC academy over the years and returned to teach, using their various experiences – including training officers, Urban Search and Rescue Team members, leadership instructors and those focused on other topics.
Jacob Smith, a battalion chief with the Euless, TX, Fire Department, graduated from TCC’s Night Class 10, paying his own way as a non-sponsored student. He was also going through a paramedic class at the same time.
Within two months of graduating from TCC, he was hired by the fire department and went right to work.
“What's special for me is, going through the academy here with Chief Pearson, and now I’m back here working with him,” Smith said. “It's pretty neat to see it all go full circle.“
“The teaching style has had to change,” Smith said, reflecting on differences from his time in the academy. “In just the last 10 years that I've been involved in as an instructor out here, we've had to redevelop our instructional processes a bit, because it's a different generation of students."
Euless Fire Department Driver/Engineer Ryan Hayes, a member of Day Class 30, now works as an adjunct instructor.
“I don't think they realize just how fortunate they are to have all these offerings available to them,” Hayes said about those who go through the academy. “We didn't have nearly the level of instructors we did when I came through here. There is so much knowledge out here, and sometimes we take it for granted because we're here all the time.”
Hayes likes the depth of the classes they offer, adding “I’m just proud to be out here and to be a part of it.”
“It’s just amazing that they go through the program, get a job, then come back and be a part of the academy,” Pearson said.
During the ceremony, instructor Jeff Holloway – who has both taught and written for Firehouse - received the Instructor of the Year Award from the Texas Area Fire Educators association for his dedication to firefighter education at the college and beyond.
He acknowledged the college, saying it is where he began his education and was thankful for the opportunities he has received since.
Pearson said the college created an Outstanding Alumni Award program to highlight the extraordinary work graduates have done in the field.
Burleson, TX, Firefighter Dallas Fowler was the first recipient for his efforts in the rescue of a worker trapped over 700 feet on a transmission tower.
“It was a tremendous rescue that was seen around the world, and we were very proud of him for that.”
He recalled a recent recipient, Irving, TX, firefighter Adam Donahue, who was seriously injured after being struck by a vehicle at an accident scene and, after rehabilitating and returning to work, suffered another injury during a training evolution.
“He was a tremendous student, a tremendous person, and an outstanding firefighter," said Pearson. "I hope he gets his career back on track."
At the ceremony, the school dedicated an ornamental bell that will be placed in the fire station for recruits to ring at future graduations. Pearson was gifted a plaque with a replica of the bell.
Pearson acknowledged the school’s board of trustees for supporting the program, the growth of the facility and the purchase of modern fire apparatus to make sure students have reality-based training opportunities.
The sprawling complex has evolved and, in 2001, a whole new facility with multiple burn buildings, a training tower, an intense swift water rescue training area, multiple technical rescue training areas, aircraft and rail car props, and an extrication pit was dedicated.
“Many countries who look to us, not only as a benchmark not only for the quality of education but the outstanding facility,” TCC Northwest President Zarina Blankenbaker said.
“It's just amazing to be a part of the process. I have been so blessed to be a part of it, and the technology part of it has grown, and starting to get into more technical classes like drone classes and special ops,” Pearson said. “We have swiftwater rescue classes and students go through these classes, then they go out and perform some type of rescue because of that training they went through out here. So that just makes us feel good about what we do.”
