Part of the answer to the Longview Fire Department's staffing issues wore uniforms in September marked as "Apprentice" while they attended classes at the department's training center on American Legion Boulevard.

Brandon O'Hanlon, India Roberts and Nathan Sherman are part of the first class of 10 students to begin a new, accelerated certification program developed by the Longview Fire Department in cooperation with Kilgore College. It's designed to get personnel onto firetrucks and ambulances quicker than a traditional program.

Like other agencies around the country, the Longview Fire Department has been plagued by staffing issues largely related to retirements and firefighters changing careers. That issue resulted in millions of dollars in overtime costs in the department in the past few years as it worked to maintain necessary staffing on firetrucks and ambulances, including staffing for an additional ambulance that went into service in January 2022.

India Roberts and other new Longview firefighters attending the Kilgore College Fire Academy participate in a vehicle extrication training session Thursday, September 19, 2024, at PIcker's iSelf Service Auto Parts. 

(Les Hassell/Longview News-Journal Photo)

 

Longview Fire Chief J.P. Steelman told the City Council earlier this year that the department is authorized for a staff of 187 people, including 164 certified personnel staffing firetrucks and ambulances. He described how the city lost dozens of people in the past few years:

In 2022, 23 certified personnel left the department. The department hired 21 people, but six vacancies were created by the need to staff an additional ambulance.

In 2023, 24 people left; the department hired 25 people and added one position. 

In 2024, 15 people left the department; 29 were hired and one position was added. That included 16 people hired this year, 10 of whom are part of the new training program. 

That turnover cost millions in overtime pay, but the city of Longview and the fire department have taken multiple steps to address the situation, including what Steelman described as the "hybrid" program developed in cooperation with Kilgore College. It essentially involves Longview fire personnel teaching those classes. 

He said the department also made a "huge" pivot and lowered the hiring age from 21 to 18, something that hadn't been done since the late 1970s or early 1980s.

"It's just another lever we're trying to pull to improve our applicant pool," he previously told the City Council.

O'Hanlon and Sherman found their way to Longview following their longtime desire to join a professional fire department. Roberts decided to come to Longview after she finished her service in the Army. She joined the military in Tampa, Florida, and was stationed at Fort Cavazos in Killeen for five years.

"Getting out (of the Army), I didn't know what I wanted to do," Roberts said. She thought about becoming an EMT, but one of her leaders suggested she look into being a firefighter.

"I decided that was what I wanted to do," Roberts said, and she found the Longview Fire Department and its apprentice program where she could be hired without prior experience and start training while earning a paycheck.

Kaden Peppers and other new Longview firefighters attending the Kilgore College Fire Academy participate in a vehicle extrication training session Thursday, September 19, 2024, at PIcker's Self Service Auto Parts. 

(Les Hassell/Longview News-Journal Photo)

 

This is the first apprentice class the Longview Fire Department has had since 2017, said Training Chief Travis Pickle. 

"Our Apprentice Ones have no knowledge base at all, basically, so we put them through fire/EMT (certification) and then, ultimately paramedic (certification)," Pickle said. Since Longview provides fire and emergency medical services — not every city operates its own ambulance service — every member becomes a certified firefighter and a paramedic.

Sherman is from Victoria, where he had been working at a chemical facility. He and his family moved to Linden because his wife wanted to return to her hometown.

Firefighting is a family tradition.

"I grew up around it. My family's always been in it," and it's always been something he wanted to do, Sherman said.

O'Hanlon had been working with the volunteer fire department in Lindale and joined the program in Longview because he wanted to join a "career department," where he could work full-time. 

"Typically, they have different types of classes. They'll either do an on online class, or they'll go full time over to the college," Pickle said. "So this one, they spend Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, doing book work here at the training center. And then on Thursday and Friday, they go to Kilgore College and do skills weekly.

"It kind of puts it all together in a better format, where they actually get to get their hands on (practice) instead of waiting until the very last minute. And then have to try to remember, what did we do the second week? How do we tie those knots? How do we throw that ladder? You know, it kind of ties them all together and gives them some working knowledge."

Pickle said the city hopes the apprentices can finish all their training and certifications within 13 months instead of the typical two years. They become Apprentice 2 after completing fire/EMT certification.

Instructor Brian Jones talks to new Longview firefighters attending the Kilgore College Fire Academy during a vehicle extrication training session Thursday, September 19, 2024, at PIcker's Self Service Auto Parts. 

(Les Hassell/Longview News-Journal Photo)

 

"Most of your paramedic classes run at least a year. Typically, ours were down to nine months. The EMT and the fire program both we were able to cut, you know, three to four weeks out of each class by compressing them, doing them the way we're doing, and then we add the paramedic after the first of the year. So ... it's a shorter time frame once they get their fire/EMT, they can actually come to work and start working while they're going to (paramedic) school .... that will kind of get them in the business and seeing and handling and touching and doing, you know, with the other paramedics — give them that working knowledge there while they're doing their paramedic training."

In the future, the program could be opened to other departments. 

Sherman said if he hadn't been selected to be a part of Longview's program, he would have gone to fire school and EMT training on his own. Pickle said Longview's program allows for students who had been working and supporting families to continue earning  an income while completing their training.

From left, Nathan Sherman, Brandon O'Hanlon and India Roberts are new apprentices with the Longview Fire Department. 

(Courtesy Photo)

 

Pickle noted the importance of the change in Longview's hiring age, from 21 to 18, to continuing to keep the department staffed appropriately.

"That's going to allow us to grab some of the kids that are going through the fire program in high school, because they can come out as firefighters at 18 years old and EMTs. Instead of us saying, well, 'Go get your paramedic (certification) and come back and see us in a few years, when you turn 21,'" Pickle said. "Well, by that time, the possibility of them going somewhere else, getting into another department that does hire early, kind of takes that opportunity away from us, and we're losing homegrown people that way, and they're going to other departments. This allows us to kind of get these kids that are getting started, too, that want to want to be here, want to stay around home..."

Unlike O'Hanlon and Sherman, Roberts said she doesn't have family in this area, but Pickle joked with her about now having a "lots of mean, big brothers, an extended family."

O'Hanlon agreed. Being a part of a fire department is like having a second family.

"I would say that I spent most my life just chasing a paycheck, and this job's more of a calling, and I'm extremely proud to be a part of this crew," he said.