Scott

Well it is long past due since i have blogged about Scott. He graduated from his fire academy at BATC on 2/6/09 as the Class Officer (President) and with the best grades. He was chosen as BATC Student of the Month and had an add in the paper about how awesome he is. Since that time he has also turned 31. And before I get to far along, let me tell you all how much I love him. I couldn't be married to a better man. We may not be rich or even "well off" but we don't need anything to be happy but each other. Here are some pics of Scott's graduation.






The top one I took graduation night. Then there are 2 pictures of his entire class. Now you are probably thinking that being class officer with a class of 5 was easy, well not so. They started out as 10 i think and a different student was class officer. See the position of class officer is appointed by that group of men in the last photo. those are the various fire chief's and instructors from SLC, Ogden, Logan, North Logan and Smithfield Fire Departments. So after the first class officer was kicked out of the program Scott was appointed.

Now that class is out it was time for testing. The hiring process for Fire Fighters is long and ardous, and did I mention long? We have been testing at West Valley City and Ogden and it has been going on for almost 4 weeks now. I will briefly explain the process.

Round One: At both West Valley City and Ogden they administer a written exam. It is a difficult exam that covers everything they have learned as Fire Fighters and EMT's. The next hard part is that they only take a few of the applicants on to the next round. In West Valley City there were over 300 people who took the written test and they invited 80 to the next round, the physical test. In Ogden only 100 people took the written and they only took 25 on to the next round.

Round 2: If you have a high enough passing score on teh written test, which is pre-determined and they do not tell you what it is, then you get invited back for the physical portion. At West Valley City they administer the Fire Fighters CPAT test. This is an extremely physically demanding test. HEre is a link to a video of the test, this is almost exactly what he did at West Valley. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3thDKKLq5o I am very happy to say and Scott is very happy also that he scored the 2nd lowest time they have ever had. All of our time at the gym had paid off. Not only did he get the 2nd lowest score he wasn't even out of breath. Most men who take this test either vomit or pass out at the end, no I am not kidding. It is a very different kind of physical test and if you aren't ready for it then you won't pass it. Because of his time he was automatically given a time and date for the oral interview. Woo Hoo, this is the last step at West Vallye City. Then we headed to Ogden for their physical test the next day. Because of their lack of training facility theirs was to run a mile and a half, sit ups, push ups, sit and reach and bench pressing. He passed these tasks with no difficulty. There wasn't a time or anything, just a pass fail. So he passed and was given an interview time at Ogden also the same day as West Valley City. So now the interview at West Valley city was nerve wracking. He wore his best suit and wanted to make an impression, so he went to the Logan City Fire Chief and asked for some pointers. They helped a lot. He has an interview with some firefighters first and then an interview with the chief's next. Then he ran to Ogden for their interview. They were both intense but he felt confident that he did his best.

And the results are........

West Valley City ranked him 12 out of 300. THis is great. So now when there is an open position for the next 1 1/2 years they go to their list and call in the top group on the list and interview them all again for the position. 12 is great for a rookie and he is the highest ranked rookie at West Valley City. Even if he stopped testing, he would get a job at West Valley City with in the next year, but we are not waiting on that. As far as Ogden goes, they said they would send out ranking notices by April 1st. So every day we anxiously look in the mail for his letter. We are confident if he was ranked high in West Valley he will probably be ranked close to teh same at Ogden.

So now we wait. Logan will test when it comes closer to summer, and we are hoping our "connections" there will help him have a chance there. His main instructor was the fire chief at Logan and he really likes Scott. He calls him all the time asking for help and we take that as a good sign, at least he won't forget him.

Right now Scott is suppose to be taking the phlebotomy class at BATC in April, this is a pre-requisit for paramedic. Scott's main goal is to become a paramedic. So he is planning on starting school at Weber State this fall. Fire Departments higher fire fighters enrolled in paramedic school, so it won't stop the testing at all.

So that is our update on Scott. He is in great physical shape, he has lost over 40 pounds and he can out run most any other fire fighter. He is ready to go and I know he will be great.