<strong>From staff reports</strong>

Lady’s Island – St. Helena Fire District’s Killian Johnson and Samuel Williams were among the 28 recruits to graduate Friday, Feb. 26 from the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation’s South Carolina Fire Academy’s eight-week firefighter candidate school in Columbia.

These firefighters underwent a 320-hour training program of classroom and hands-on firefighting skills development. Keynote speaker was Assistant State Fire Marshal Chief Nathan Ellis,.

“This challenging program requires commitment, passion, and dedication,” Fire Academy Superintendent Dennis Ray said. “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.”

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.

Additionally, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, changes were made to class structure and facilities to promote social distancing and recommended precautions.

“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.”

<em>Above: Two firefighters from the Lady’s Island–St. Helena Fire District – Samuel Williams (far left, second row) and Killian Johnson (far right, back row) – are among the 28 to graduate Feb. 26 from South Carolina Fire Academy’s eight-week firefighter candidate school in Columbia.</em>