By Staff Writer: Jada Boprie

A crowd made up of parents, teachers, photographers, school board members, and a combination of firemen from nearby towns congregated at the HHS Fire Academy on Friday, Sept. 27.

Visitors were impressed when seeing the abilities of the students taking the course.  Firemen from Howell, Brighton, Hartland, and Deerfield, along with the fire chiefs from Brighton and Howell, appeared in uniform. Amidst this group stood the cadets, looking younger but no less distinguished than their elders. The teacher, Tom Kiurski, hosted the event.

Kiurski described the military attitude and rigorous guidelines of the class. Kiurski then passed the spotlight to one of his students, who illustrated each step in the process of putting on the uniform.

The show paused for pictures of the students in full, firefighter uniform. Images were captured with the phones of proud parents, who posed next to their teens, and with the large, impressive cameras of professional cameramen, who appeared at the open house to document the event for local news.

The next demonstration was conducted outside, where the students formed a Bucket brigade (by lining up and passing buckets of water to one another) to drench a mock fire. The crowd applauded with appreciation after this demonstration.

The cadets organized themselves into groups of five, and each faction took a fire hose. One at a time, with each hose connected to the fire truck that was full of water, the hoses came alive.

With enough force to hail a monsoon, five of the six hoses demonstrated the jetting stream used to engulf flames. The sixth hose demonstrated the “water curtain” stream, which although is inefficient for flooding fires, it created a shimmering rainbow that dazzled the audience and caught the eye of passing cars.

As the observers migrated back inside for coffee and refreshments, guests mentioned to one another how the cadets had exceeded their expectations, and how they hoped the Fire Academy would inspire the creation of more vocational courses at Howell.

“The Open House for the Fire Academy was a great success. It was well attended by the community, members of the area fire departments, and families of the students. Howell Schools was able to showcase a great new program that will be available for students for years to come,” school board president Michael Witt says. “I couldn’t be prouder of these students or their instructor.”