Future firefighters

Battalion Chief Dave Parker said he's short on firefighters and is looking to high school students to help fill the void.

"The fire service needs more firefighters," Parker said, adding that Odessa College is helping to fill that need with a high school fire academy.

"This course gives high school students a chance to go to school and get certified as a firefighter and emergency medical technician so they'll get a job right after high school."

Koko Ortiz, an 18-year-old Permian High senior, said she wasn't originally looking for a job as a firefighter.

"It was completely an accident," Koko said. "I was just doing this for the EMT (emergency medical technician) experience because I was wanting to go into nursing."

Kojo said her career of choice changed days after she began the academy.

"I never thought I'd like the class before I started," she said. "I don't want to be a nurse anymore. I'll have to take one more semester at the academy after I graduate soon, then I'll hopefully get a job with the department."

Parker said Ortiz and the seven other students in the academy would have to learn every aspect of the firefighter job.

"They'll do live fire training and repel from buildings," he said. "They'll do anything firefighters need to do in the line of duty."

Parker said the students would also have to learn how to extricate a dummy from a vehicle and use a hydraulic cutting device.

It's things like that - helping people in need - that drew Garrett Fuquay, a 17-year-old Odessa High junior, to the course.

"I didn't want to be a doctor - doctors don't make home visits," Garrett said. "Somebody's got to help people in danger."

Garrett said that even though he's near the top of his graduating class, he didn't think the academy was easy.

"You've got to be willing to work hard," he said. "You've got to be willing to put in the effort."