PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — Every day, they drive to Prince William County from places like Culpeper and Fredericksburg.
They’ll make $48,200 per year, and they’ll serve Prince William County residents and visitors on some of the worst days of their lives.
The 30 members of Prince William County Fire and Rescue Recruit Class 2018-1 graduated on Friday. They’re the newest members of the county’s career fire department after spending the past 28 weeks learning how to provide basic medical care, fight fires, and work as a team.
“There were times when this class couldn’t agree on anything, right down to the what we’d wear for PT in the mornings,” said Jason Adkins, a 23-year-old from Fredericksburg who was the recruit class president.
Eventually, they gelled. But it wasn’t easy.
With many class members to work from outside Prince William County, students drove a cumulative 290,672 miles to get to work for training. In that same distance, they could have circled globe 11 and a half times.
They walked up so many stairs, the equivalent of walking up and down the Empire State Building in New York City 22 times.
They lost a cumulative 241 pounds of fat and gained 108 pounds of muscle weight. They did 80,000 push-ups.
“Some of those pushups were done for physical fitness, and some were done for discipline,” said fire and rescue Capt. Bruce Tucker.
The class members affectionately referred to themselves as a “motley crew.”
On Friday, however, donned in their uniforms. the recruits-turned Fire Fighter Technicians were all smiles. The county’s fire and rescue Chief Kevin McGee pinned a badge on each, and then they have issued their duty assignments and fire helmets.
From here, the class will split up as members will serve in fire stations across the county. Some as firefighters and others as EMTs.
Tucker left them with a parting message before sending them out into the world.
“The moment you think you are the best is the moment you stop trying to be better,” he said.
More than 700 people make up the combination fire and rescue system in Prince William County, comprised of both career staff like the ones who graduated Friday and volunteers at eight companies across the county that primarily work nights and weekends.
