Shasta College Fire Academy’s one of tops in training California’s first-responders

It’s 8 o’clock in the morning and the 34 cadets from the Shasta College have already put in two hours of rigorous exercise when they are asked by Chief Ron Marley to take a knee and take out their notebooks.

Cadets in the Shasta Fire Academy listen up between the morning’s activities.

“Always accept responsibility. Seek out leadership,” Marley says, in a commanding voice. “When some-thing’s broke, fix it. Don’t wait around for someone else to do it.”

12-hour days
Certainly lessons for everyone, but particularly for cadets who hope to advance someday as firefighters. And these students want it bad. So bad, they have signed up for a demanding 12-hour day, four days a week for 18 weeks. They won’t all make it out. In fact, they’ve lost seven students after four weeks. Yet the ones remain­ing are determined to complete the program.

The academy draws people from throughout the state, as well as the surrounding area. When their train­ing is complete, cadets find assignments as far away as Florida and New York, although most hope to stay in California.

“This is the Number 1 academy in California,” says Aaron Dieck, a cadet from French Gulch, some 50 miles away. Already an emergency medical technician, Dieck wants to become a firefighter with the California Department of Forestry when he completes his courses.

Marley knows that the program is good, but he admits he can’t find out exactly where students are hear­ing that the program is in fact, “Number 1.”

He’s also surprised since the rigid, paramilitary pro­gram is “first come, first served” and takes everyone who enrolls.

“We don’t attempt to weed out students based on physical abilities. If we had done that, we would have weeded out some of our best students,” Marley says. As examples, he cites students who may not have initially performed physical tests as well, but understood group dynamics, team building and leadership skills.

Each incoming class also includes a number of women cadets, although there is just one female in this fall’s academy, Britney Isringhausen. Despite the fact she has more difficulty swing­ing a sledge hammer than some of the male students, she says the atmosphere is sup­portive.

“It’s pretty intense,” she says of the program, “but I have become close to the other cadets and they help me a lot. Every week, it gets bet­ter,” she says of the program.

Unlike other programs, Shasta Fire Academy students are required to take English every day as part of their train­ing. Marley firmly believes the requirement turns out successful cadets who are better able to compete for jobs in the state. He says the cadets benefit from the English course work, which includes developing their mission statements and core values. The English instructor is also able to point out students who are strug­gling and who may need extra tutoring or counseling.

Although many of the students have come from fire­fighting families, many are also coming into the program from white collar back­grounds and with little or no experience. He’s had students that range from under 18 year to a 53-year-old woman who went through the program after her two children completed it.

In addition to Marley’s courses, the Fire Technology/EMT program is enhanced by nearly 60 adjuncts who teach specialized courses in hazardous materials, emergency medical services, fire investigation and other aspects of firefighting.

Chief Ron Marley in his office.

Shasta College is also unique in that it is one of the last community colleges in the country to have its own fire department. When the college was first built in 1950 on 337 acres a few miles north of Redding, there was no fire protection. Today, the fire station, run with a paid fire chief and assistant chief and a force of volunteers, still provides fire, rescue, and emergency medical services both on-campus and to a large area of Shasta County. The voluntary positions open to students allows them personal development not available in other college fire training programs. Students selected often leave with over 1,500 additional hours of training that students from other colleges do not have, Marley notes on the program’s website. In addition, students work with the CDF from November to June, when it brings in one of its engines.

“During those seven months, our service area explodes. We respond to fires up to the Siskiyou County line and up to Burney,” about 60 miles away, Marley says.

For Marley, who has had a varied career as a freelance photographer, in the U.S. Air Force in explosives ordnance disposal, as a police officer, and fire investigator, teaching is as good as it gets.

“I love it. I absolutely love it. It’s the most chal­lenging thing I’ve done,” Marley says of his role as instructor. “It’s dynamic, and gives me opportunities for personal growth. And the work is varied, from writing curriculum, working with the fire department, and teaching. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Chief Marley chats with Cadet Britney Isringhausen.

Not only is he a full-time tenured faculty (and CCA member) at the college, he is active on a num­ber of private and governmental advisory boards. In addition, his schedule allows him to fight wildfires in the summer. Marley has also made it a point to get more campus faculty and staff working together by linking the program up with the classified employees, the transportation department and the heavy equip­ment program on campus. He knows how important the program is within the community college.

“If you look at California, the community col­leges are the training grounds for law enforcement, fire fighters and EMS. This is a vocation and a skills-based profession,” he says. “We’re the training grounds of our first responders.”