LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Students, firefighters and educators gathered on Tuesday to celebrate a significant donation to the Lower Lake High School Fire Science Program – its own fire truck.
Parked in front of the high school, students in firefighter turnouts were on hand with administrators and local fire officials to dedicate the truck.
Northshore Fire Protection District donated the 1988 FMC fire engine to the school, said Jay Beristianos, chief of Northshore Fire.
Beristianos said the truck has a 1,500-gallon-per-minute pump and a 500-gallon tank, with fire science lead instructor Chris Vallerga adding that it has 500 feet of 5-inch hose.
Students expressed their excitement and gratitude for the truck, and their eagerness to be able to use it as they prepare for careers in the fire service.
Jim Burton, the retired chief of the Clearlake Oaks Fire District – which has since been consolidated into Northshore Fire – was on hand for the dedication, along with wife, Sue, a member of the Konocti Unified School District Board.
He recalled helping design the fire truck in 1988, estimating it cost between $150,000 to $200,000 when it was brand new. Fire trucks have since more than doubled in price.
The engine will stay in the county and be used on incidents in addition to the program, Vallerga said.
The fire science program has received other important support, including help with other expensive equipment – such as uniforms and helmets – from the Lake County Fire Protection District, Konocti Unified School District Superintendent Donna Becnel.
Vallerga said the Redbud Health Care District also has donated $26,000 for turnouts, the equipment firefighters wear during incidents.
Now in its third yard, with three class levels, Lower Lake High’s fire science program is getting high marks from Becnel.
“It’s very successful, and it’s continuing to grow each year that it’s in existence,” Becnel said.
Becnel said the program began in the 2014-15 school year, with a joint discussion that the fire district started with the school regarding how they could promote science to get more young people into firefighting.
The first year, the program started with just one class, introduction to fire science, expanding to a second class section in the second year, Vallerga said.
Lake County Fire was trying to do the class instruction for the first year, with the instructors teaching on their days off. Vallerga said Lake County Fire Chief Willie Sapeta, who also was on hand for the event, approached him about taking over the instruction, which he did beginning in the program's second year.
The fire science program's classes are held at Lake County Fire's Lower Lake Station 65, said Vallerga, a retired Cal Fire fire captain specialist who lives in Lower Lake.
In addition to Vallerga, the program has a number of highly experienced and qualified substitute instructors, including Sapeta; Kris Breiner, a captain at Calistoga Fire; and Mike Ciancio, deputy chief of Northshore Fire.
With 38 years of experience in firefighting, most of it spent in Lake County, Vallerga introduces students to the real world of firefighting and teamwork.
In addition to his firefighting experience, Vallerga taught at Napa High School in 2010 and 2011, as well as at Yuba College and the Cal Fire Academy.
This year, Vallerga said, Lower Lake High's fire science program has expanded further, to a total of three class sections: first year, introduction to fire science; second year, advanced fire science; and third year, work experience, in which the students will staff the engine and, in emergency situations, be able to respond and support local fire district personnel.
The students and their equipment also will be available to help the local fire districts with different functions. He said currently they are working on GPS mapping of the hydrant grid for Lower Lake.
Vallerga said the students learn many things, from tying knots and hitches, to the basics of putting out a fire.
The students also have had the chance to learn basic equipment operation, including ladders and chainsaws. Vallerga brought in his longtime colleague Mike Walton, a veteran Cal Fire bulldozer operator, to show them dozer work.
He also introduces them to the law enforcement side of firefighting. The second year's advanced fire class devotes 20 hours to arson investigations and general law enforcement, which includes understanding Miranda rights.
Vallerga brings considerable experience in fire investigations to his teaching, as he still is a member of the Lake County Arson Task Force.
Then, they take turns fixing lunch for the other students, as sometimes happens at firehouses. “It’s the real world,” Vallerga said.
One of the things Vallerga hopes his students learn is teamwork, explaining, “There is no individuality in the fire services.”
He also emphasized that the fire service is a lifestyle, not a job.
Many people who go into the fire service are from families in which there are several generations who have been in the profession, said Vallerga.
One of Vallerga's goals is to produce students who want to move into the fire service and provide the next generation of local fire professionals.
He said he's already seen a few of his students from Napa High move into the profession, and one of this year's Lower Lake High class members is now a volunteer with Lake County Fire.
Vallerga said the program will be successful if it can recruit two students a year, and so far it's surpassed that. The program now has 24 students, including several girls.
“It’s slowly but surely grown,” he said.
Even after one year, with just one section offered, the fire science program had done so well that it inspired the creation of a law enforcement class that began in the 2015-16 school year, and now has three sections, two for first-year and one for second-year students, Becnel said.
She said the school also has a police explorer program in which students work with the Clearlake Police Department.
“Our emergency response pathway is really taking hold and growing,” she said.
In fact, she said interest is expanding, and it’s starting to get attention from other school districts. Konocti Unified also has linked its fire science program with Woodland Community College, which has added an emergency medical technician class, which is a component of the overall fire science coursework.
Becnel said the fire science program will definitely continue as long as there is interest and funding.
The program would be helped if the Lower Lake fire station could be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Becnel said, because it would give access to the students and further build the fire science program.
Full staffing of Lower Lake’s Station 65 is one of the goals of Measure D, which goes before voters in the Lake County Fire Protection District – which encompasses Clearlake and Lower Lake – in a special March 7 election.
Sapeta added that, without Measure D's passage, he doubts his agency will have the staffing needed to continue to support the high school fire science program.
There are many people who want to make sure that the program sticks around.
That includes Jim and Sue Burton, whose grandson, now an eighth grader, is hoping to participate in the program when he gets to high school next year.
Fire science classes usually start at the community college level. Vallerga said there aren't many fire science programs in high school, estimating there are about six statewide.
Many have been blended into “public safety” pathways rather than just fire science, as happened at Napa High School, Vallerga said.
Becnel added that few K-12 school districts have even one class in firefighting, and “nothing close to what we have.”
She added, “I don’t think there’s any other district that owns a fire engine.”
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Lower Lake High School Fire Science Program dedicates fire engine
- Elizabeth Larson
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