For the 13th year, Fort Irwin hosted 190 Fire Explorers from 25 Explorer Posts from San Bernadino and Riverside counties at the Inland Empire Explorer Fire Association's annual fire academy.
Mentored by 85 advisors from 15 fire departments, the high school and college-age Explorers learned fire control and suppression, fire rescue, first responder, teamwork, character, and leadership skills.
"I do see a lot of change in them," said Jay Housman, drill instructor for the annual five-day Fire Explorers' fire academy held at Fort Irwin Nov. 14-18.
"When they come in, they're very laid back and loose. And then when they realize where they are and what they're doing, they seem to tighten themselves up. When I walk into a room, you see them tighten it up really quick, just by my presence, my being there."
Housman, a fire captain based in Victorville with the San Bernadino County fire department, said everyone asks him if he has an Army background.
"I'm not an Army brat. I don't know if it's just my posture, the way that I walk, the way I talk…I think it was just the way I grew up. I've always had a high and tight haircut, even when I was younger," said Housman, whose father is a retired Army reservist and whose brother is a lieutenant colonel now serving in Afghanistan.
"There's a knack to it. You just have to know who you're talking to, who you're teaching," said the fire academy's drill instructor for the past ten years.
"You have to know when to know to be a little bit harder and when to back off a little. You know when your point is being made. There's a certain threshold.
"It's not all about yelling and screaming. Maybe just by getting up there right into their face, it brings the point home, especially about safety issue. That's one of my biggest pet peeves. If they're not being safe, then something needs to be said. It's like a light switch for me. I can go with them being good with everything going on, and then, to them being unsafe. And then the light switch comes on, to nip it in the bud."
But more than discipline, Housman saw firefighters and Soldiers are special in having a special bond among themselves. "Like Col. Braga (Fort Irwin garrison commander) said at the welcoming ceremony, being part of an organization where you all are willing to put your life on the line to serve others, that makes you special and brings you close to each other."
Chris Cox, a battalion chief for the Corona Fire Department, sees other similarities between the Army and the firefighting community.
"We use our incident command system, same command system that's used nationwide," Cox said. "It's very similar to the military--we have operations, planning, logistics, finance, safety, and public information."
Cox noted that the academy was larger this year. "We have about 20 more advisors than last year, so the workload is dispersed among a lot more people, so it's a lot easier."
The academy also had 40 more Fire Explorers to train this year. The academy's 190 cadets this year came from posts in Barstow, Apple Valley, to 29 Palms and Redlands in the San Bernadino and Riverside counties.
Gabriel Gonzalez, a senior at Paloma Valley High School and a Menifee Lake fire explorer, said, "Last year, I was a captain. I was in charge of a lieutenant and four cadets. I moved them from location to location, trained with them, and mentored them. I taught them, they followed my orders, I took in their advice, their opinions on everything."
"This year, I'm in charge of a whole division, which is four battalions. Each battalion has two squads. There's more things to take into account, working with area staff, with fire chiefs," Gonzales said.
Gonzales said he joined the Fire Explorers after his family moved to Riverside County.
"It all started when I was young. I lived in a bad neighborhood. In Santa Ana, you would always see fire engines and ambulances, and police officers going by my street to go to an incident. I would jump up, I would laugh, and my dad noticed that. So he started taking me to open houses at fire stations around the county and the city," Gonzales said.
"When I moved to Riverside County, to Menifee, I didn't have any friends in the neighborhood, so I did the same thing I did before. I visited fire stations and from there, that's when I found out about the Explorers."
Gonzales plans to become a firefighter after graduating from Paloma Valley High School. "I found out there's different types of firefighters. There's firefighters for forestry, for aerial, the ones who navigate aircraft. There's paramedics; there's hazmat; there's lots of different varieties of firefighters."
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