A number of Halifax and Plympton firefighters will graduate from the Plymouth County Training Council Firefighter 1 and Firefighter 2 programs, during a ceremony to be held on Thursday, Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Duxbury Senior Center, 10 Mayflower Road in Duxbury.
The Halifax graduates are Adam Flaherty, Derek Coveney, Shamus Ricciarelli, Heather Littlefield, David Bradshaw, Richard Ferguson and Michael McDonald.
All seven graduates are trained EMTs who will be firefighter-EMTs in Halifax. Two of them are already on staff as EMTs, and the other five will fill new positions. Littlefield is a paramedic. All seven positions are on the call department, said Halifax Fire Chief Jason Viveiros.
“They’ve shown an incredible amount of dedication to it,” he said.
The Plympton graduates are Fire Lt. Robert Law and firefighter-EMT Brian Gray.
Gray is a promising young man who has been in EMS for five or six years and a Plympton call firefighter for more than three years. Law has 26 years of experience in EMS and has been a paramedic for 16 years. He is a full-time Plympton firefighter, the only full-timer in the fire department other than the chief, and is in his second year in Plympton, said Plympton Fire Chief Warren Borsari.
“This is a great program where these guys went to. I’m very proud of them,” he said.
Viveiros said the program started on Sept. 23 and ends Feb. 12.
“It covers all of the basic skills needed for firefighting,” he said.
Borsari said that for more than five months, firefighters took classes for two nights a week and on weekends.
The Firefighter 1 program covers the essentials of firefighting, and the Firefighter 2 program covers more advanced material, including hazardous materials response and motor vehicle extrications, he said.
“It’s the same as the Massachusetts Fire Academy in Stow. It’s the same syllabus, the same criteria. It’s done for call fire departments statewide,” he said. “It’s a huge course.”