Salt Lake City Hires Six New Firefighters

(KCPW News) Salt Lake City has six new firefighters on staff.  Monday, the city graduated its 34^th recruitment class at the Main City Library after 14 weeks of intensive training. Training Division Captain Chad Jepperson says over that time, recruits work 40 hours a week learning the ins and outs of the job.

“They learn everything that a firefighter needs to do from how to stretch a hose, raise a ladder; they learn fire behavior, they learn statistics of fire ground fatalities, everything that we do and that affects us, ” says Jepperson.

Jepperson says the training is done on an “at-need” basis. Every graduate from this class signed up to be a firefighter with Salt Lake City in May of 2010.

Graduate Brodie Berg says he was called just a few days before training started, and had to leave his job with no guarantee that he would make it through the classes in order to pursue his dream.

“At the time I was an overnight manager at the Payson Walmart,”  Berg says. “I had one day to give my two weeks’ notice. It was interesting because I had just been emailed by the store manager who wanted me to come in and interview for another promotion to a higher management position.  You know, the pay was going to be pretty good, but firefighter was I had been seeking and dreaming about.”

All six will begin working at different stations throughout Salt Lake City next week.