Fire Academy in Montour Falls makes adjustments due to pandemic
MONTOUR FALLS, N.Y. (WENY) -- 22 firefighter recruits from across New York State will soon be heading back home to help keep their communities safe.
The firefighter recruits will graduate next Thursday, October 22nd from the New York State Academy of Fire Science in Montour Falls.
"There's two firefighters in the recruit class that are volunteers. The rest are all career firefighters who are brand new, so they're all learning how to become firefighters," says Francis Nerney, New York State Fire Administrator.
Firefighter training began back in August, and with the pandemic still happening, the fire Academy had to make some adjustments, including implementing sanitizer stations throughout the Academy.
"We check our temperatures twice a day for those that are here for 24 hours, so we're monitoring those things. We have all the procedures in place, we have isolation rooms should a recruit firefighter become sick any kind of symptoms we ship them away from everybody else into another area of the building until we figure out where to get them tested," says Nerney.
Sean Pecukonis, an Albany, N.Y. resident is in his 10th week of training at the fire Academy. Pecukonis tells WENY News, there have been some challenges due to COVID-19, including having to wear your face mask during daily training.
"We have to keep 6-feet distance. We have to wear these masks, even in our dorms when we're in our Academy across the way," says Pecukonis.
Pecukonis added, "The COVID thing has definitely made it a challenge, but with everything that the state fire has done for us making it an easy transition, having a lot of face masks available for us, a lot of cleaning, supplies available to us, has definitely made it a lot easier for us to deal with the COVID."
Pecukonis will graduate next Thursday and head back to Albany, where he will begin his career at the Albany Airport Fire Department.
