ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – The goal is to make sure firefighters are fully prepared and can handle an emergency, especially in rural parts of Roanoke County.
It’s why the county is hosting several training academies to ensure a new fire station is fully staffed when it opens next year.
James Woodard, a recruit, comes from a family of public servants.
“Many grandparents and great grandparents who were volunteer firefighters,” Woodard said.
For Woodard to serve the community after nearly a decade in the Navy, it was an easy decision for him to join a firefighting training academy.
“I’m very honored, to be able to do that to be hired to be able to continue that tradition,” Woodard said.
Woodard is one of about 20 recruits training to become firefighters in the Roanoke Valley.
“The way how we do our academy is a regional thing,” Brian Clingenpeel with the Roanoke County Fire and Rescue said.
Clingenpeel said the goal is to make sure stations across the Valley are staffed to handle emergencies.
He said the training academy is highly competitive and they may get about 80 applications for academy, which is beneficial for the community.
Once admitted, the recruits learn everything about how their gear is used, to proper firefighting techniques over 22 weeks.
Firefighters plan to hold three training academies, one targeting Roanoke County.
“I think the training academy in October, I was told is going to be a Roanoke County-only training academy,” Clingenpeel said.
Clingenpeel said the new fire station that will open in 2025 in Bonsack will serve a portion of the county that is seeing growth, which if there is an emergency, people will not have to rely on partnering agencies to respond, reducing wait times.
“It’s a little bit of an isolated area of Roanoke County, however, it’s a growing area of Roanoke County there are businesses, restaurants, and industrial places and a whole lot of houses,” Clingenpeel said.