Victor allows 16-year-old firefighters

Victor's Volunteer Fire Department now allows 16-year-olds to apply to work fires alongside the veterans, after the village approved the change in protocol at Monday's Board of Trustees meeting.

Fire Chief Joseph Murphy said volunteer firefighter numbers have been dwindling over the last few years due to members' job placement outside the area or inability to meet the department's time commitment. The department lost about 10 firefighters in the last year alone.

"Many of the current firefighters were junior firefighters when they were young, which allowed them to get training earlier," said Murphy. A national certification course needed to become a volunteer firefighter calls for over 100 hours of training — a daunting number to careerists interested in volunteer firefighting, but less so to high schoolers.

"If we can get them at 16 or 17 when they're young…they can get that basic training and, at the age of 18, they can then become firefighters," said Murphy.

New York state law allows young people of that age to volunteer as firefighters with the proper training, but Murphy needed the village's approval to officially accept applications from 16- and 17-year-olds. Eight applications came in at last night's meeting, including Murphy's 16-year-old son Michael.

The young firefighters will not be able to enter burning buildings or direct traffic, and will wear special gear to identify them as "junior rank" firefighters, but will otherwise act as equals with the rest of the department participants, Murphy said.

Applicants must go through several types of background checks before being voted into the department, so the teenagers won't be accepted for at least another two months, he said. But many of them are raring to get out and fight fires.

"A lot of those who applied are children of our members," Murphy said. "They're excited about it…there's lots of family traditions going into this."

STADDEO@DemocratandChronicle.com

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