Burton Fire District’s Morgan Clifton was among the 20 recruits graduated by the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation’s South Carolina Fire Academy on Friday, Feb. 28 from its eight-week firefighter candidate school in Columbia.

The keynote speaker was Chief Colleen Walz of the St. John’s Fire District. The 20 firefighters underwent a 320-hour training program of classroom and hands-on firefighting skills development.

“This challenging eight-week program requires commitment, passion, and dedication,” Fire Academy Superintendent Dennis Ray said in a release. “These recruits have successfully worked together as a team, performed extensive hands-on training with live fires, and passed intensive practical skills evaluations and written tests to meet the National Fire Protection Association standards,” he said.

The comprehensive training, offered quarterly at the Fire Academy, includes emergency responder first aid training, hazardous materials operations training, auto extrication, flammable liquids and gas firefighting, rescue training, and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Firefighter I and Firefighter II levels.

“With the successful completion and graduation of these new firefighters who will now be dedicating their lives to serving their communities and the state, our South Carolina fire service is enhanced,” Ray said. “I am proud of their accomplishments and I also commend the dedicated Fire Academy instructors who brought the recruits through these weeks of instruction leading to graduation.”