Five Years In, Fire Department’s Explorer Post Recruiting New Blood

This year, three of the newest members of the arrived straight out of the Department’s own Explorer Post 17—and now the Department is looking for replacements. As many replacements as it can get, actually.

Young people aged 14-21 are invited to apply for Explorer Post 17, a developmental program for aspiring firefighters or EMS personnel in and around Western Springs that began five years ago and has expanded to over a dozen members. (The organization is affiliated with the Boy Scouts’ Des Plaines Valley Council.)

Meeting twice monthly, Explorer members take classes—both lectures and hands-on training—in both the Illinois State Fire Marshal Firefighter II and Emergency First Responder curriculums. Members also assist the Department with local functions like the Open House.

“They’ll learn extrication and hoses and ladders; they wear all the gear and do all the chopping and cutting and stuff and doing all the things a typical firefighter would do,” said Department Post Advisor Steve Bradley.

“If they have the slightest instinct that they want to be a firefighter when they grow up, this will give them a hint if it’s a career path that they’d like to take.”

Besides the three graduates who have just become Western Springs firefighters, seven others have become members in nearby towns.

Applicants can be male or female, and must maintain at least a C average in school. Anyone interested can contact Bradley at 708-246-1182.