On Tuesday 12/10/2019 SLVFD Chief Brendan Keough, Assistant Chief Doug Peck and family members travelled to Westville to the Franklin County training grounds to attend a graduation ceremony for SLVFD firefighters Codey LaPage, and Andrea Boon.

The Basic Exterior Firefighting Operations / with Hazardous Materials First Responder Operations course (BEFO) is a 25 night 79 hour course that prepares firefighters to operate on the fire ground. BEFO is the first course in sequence that is followed by the Self Contained Breathing Apparatus/Interior Firefighting Operations course, (SCBA/IFO) is 16 nights and 50 hours. The two courses combined 39 nights and 129 hours are what is required for a new member to become an interior structural firefighter.

Codey and Andrea have travelled to Westville an hour ride each way to the Franklin County training grounds 2 nights a week since September. They will pick up their travels again in March to complete the second phase of SCBA/IFO.

Volunteer firefighters go through a lot of required training, as volunteers this is unpaid duty and it is in addition to all of the other duties such as work bees and responding to actual emergencies. We say it often, it takes a lot of training and effort to keep the SLVFD in operation.

We are very proud of the efforts being made by Codey and Andrea, congratulations to them on their BEFO graduation, and we thank them for their service to the community we love.