Fire Fighters graduate from first course in 15 years

Firefighters from the first course offered in Listuguj in 15 years graduated just before the new year. The graduation was held on Dec. 16 at the Bingo Hall.

The 10-week course began in September. They could be seen running various training exercises throughout that time.

Some of the new firefighters, like 18-year-old Cody Duguay tried getting in early, but didn’t hear back. He recieved a call the day the course started. Someone had dropped out. Duguay was there five minutes later.

“What have I gotten myself into,” Duguay quickly thought.

“I would just start, take a step back, think why I’m doing this, and is this really what I want to do,” he said.  “As I read through the course books and looked at and everything, I found this would be something I would really love to do, so I kept going with it.”

The training did it’s job – it taught Duguay how to keep a level head in a stressful situation.

He remembers one time during training when he was under a firetruck, practicing how to conserve air when an air tank is low. He rolled over, and didn’t realize his air was off. Then he got stuck.

“That scared the hell outta me right there, I was ready to quit the course,” he said.

His instructor pulled him out, and he decided to go back the next day. Now he has five different certificates qualifying him as firefighter.

“We earned this and it was a hard road,” said Duguay. “While I will – and always shall – be happy that we have completed this course, I will miss this training. I will miss doing this everyday.”