New activity: CITY OF PLANO FIRE DEPARTMENT CITIZENS’ ACADEMY

Barbara: Before Covid, I had enrolled in the City of Plano Police Department Citizens’ Academy, and it was a great experience except that it was cut short halfway through by Covid. But I had also heard that there was a similar Academy for citizens through the Plano Fire Department and I finally had the free time to go to their classes so I enrolled. Now my long-time friends probably laughed when they heard that, considering the thing that frightens me the most is fire or actually anything the least bit hot. When I was a young girl, I understand that I kissed the toaster because I loved toast so much and it burned my lips, which could explain the fear of hot things. But I decided I wanted to learn as much as I could about fire and fire fighting.

Boy has this experience been an eye-opener. First, to learn all the things there are to learn about fire and to have wonderful hands-on experience in, for example, opening a hydrant, running a hose, forced entry, and I’m yet to do the day where we possibly get to drive the engine, climb a ladder as though we were saving someone and other activities.

But some of the truly good experiences are our ride-alongs. This is where we pick a time slot and a station and spend several hours with the firemen, learning about them and going with them on calls. I have such a new respect for our brave firemen. I won’t go into some of the things I learned about them here, but what they have to face every week is not easy and yet they love their jobs and would do nothing else. As one gentleman said “every day we get to help someone“. I understand that the city of Plano has many such academies, including the two I’ve mentioned but also one with the Prosecutor‘s office, one with the city government, one with the Sheriff’s office and I’m not sure if there are any others. Definitely these academies are something I would suggest enrolling in as they are very worthwhile.