Ed Szach and Steven Worley are looking forward to graduating from Goodrich High School. With the rite of passage, they’ll receive their diplomas, but will also receive something extra? pagers.
The Atlas Township residents, currently Groveland Township Fire Department cadets, are about to become firefighter 2/emergency medical technicians.
Szach, 19, and Worley, 18, began their training in September with Groveland.
‘I tried to get on the Atlas Fire Department and they told me I couldn’t be hired until I was out of high school,? said Worley, whose father is a fire sergeant in Royal Oak. ‘I’ve wanted to do this as long as I can remember. I was hoping I could get on earlier, but with sports and keeping my grades up, I didn’t have a chance until I was 18.?
Szach and Worley have done their training at Fire Station #2, going twice a week, occasionally some Saturdays, and some weeks Monday through Friday from 6 p.m.-10 p.m. Their training has included lessons in CPR, HAZ-MAT operations, search and rescue, ladders, how to tie knots, what ropes can be used for certain jobs, water streams, when to go defensive on a fire, signs of collapse, drafting and more.
Worley, who recently put in his two-week notice at Wojo’s Greenhouse to do more training with the fire department, has been out on a couple fires for practice and called it ‘a blast.? Szach hasn’t been to a fire yet, but is waiting on confirmation for a training burn.
The pair have been on medical calls, and are capable of taking vital signs and blood pressure, performing CPR, and doing splints, backboards, and stabilizing accident victims.
Szach plans to stay at his full-time job at Brown’s Do-It Center until he finishes his EMT classes and is looking forward to being a firefighter/paramedic.
‘We want to be the people running in the house when people are running out,? he said.
‘I like knowing when you hear the sirens going by, I’m going to be a part of it and not sitting there wondering if everyone is OK.?
Worley, who begins an 8-year enlistment in the Navy on Jan. 16, agrees.
‘I like being able to help people,? he said.