Team of seven joins fire company’s ranks

NORTH CANAAN — Their average age is 23. They have been volunteer fire company members for as long as 15 years, or as little as a month. But the number they all have in common is 200. That’s how many hours they have now completed in Firefighter 1 training. The seven newest firefighters on the Canaan Fire Company are anxiously awaiting the results of the written exams they took in late January. All were confident, but quickly noted they passed the physical training for state certification and can now serve on active duty. They have up to a year to retake and pass the written test, if needed.Now they may serveFor Shanna Foley, Ben Gustafson, Leo Gustafson, Cody Luminati, Trevor Neely, Minh Tran and Jason Zucco, this achievement is just the first step. It allows them to put on turnout gear and fight fires, attend to motor vehicle accidents and do all the other things firefighters do. They know further training and recertification requirements are endless. They know that being a volunteer will eat up a large chunk of their lives. They know the sacrifice will be everything from missing sleep and meals to being away from their families at the most critical times, and putting their own lives on the line.But this group has a leg up. Seldom do so many train at one time. They took advantage of that at every chance they got.“We did everything together,” Foley said. “We drove to fire school, ate dinner at the firehouse while we studied and practiced everything as much as we could, with help from a lot of the members.”They forged a tight bond that they know will carry on. During training, when physical and even psychological limits were pushed, all they needed to do was remember their motto: I got your back.They gathered yet again at the Canaan firehouse last week to speak with The Lakeville Journal. They were happy for a delay in getting to the evening’s real work: helping to stuff 2,200 envelopes with the Canaan Fire Company’s annual appeal letter and tickets to the Feb. 18 dance. (There are just some things one can’t train for.)Failure not an optionDid they ever think some of them wouldn’t make it?“We wouldn’t let anyone fail,” said Leo Gustafson. “It was as simple as that.”The classes spanned five months. Tuesday and Thursday nights found the future firefighters huddled over dinner and the books at the firehouse, or out back training with ladders and hoses. On alternating weekends they spent eight-hour days at the Burrville Fire School in Torrington, getting a workout that they likened to basic military training.What was the hardest thing each overcame?Being young, none of them figured they would need to bump up their physical training ahead of time. Being young, they managed to survive anyway.“We all knew what was coming,” Luminati, 19, said. “I’ve been a junior [firefighter] since I was 14, and I’ve been around the fire company my whole life. I guess being in a little better shape would have helped.”The Gustafsons, 19-year-old twins, are carrying on a family tradition. “It was a little easier than I thought it would be,” Leo said. Ben agreed. The worst part was “Doyle,” their instructor, who started out as Mr. Nice Guy. “The next thing we knew, he was screaming at us like a drill sergeant,” Leo said.“We had to drag a 180-pound dummy and beat a tire with a sledgehammer until they said to stop, and run up five flights of stairs, with a backpack, on air,” he said, describing some of the more demanding episodes.“Don’t forget about the big tractor tire we had to drag around,” Ben reminded him.Personal journeys, triumphsFoley has been there before. She signed on as a junior at 14, was certified years ago and has been on active duty, now serving as a captain (along with her brother, Bobby). But she didn’t pass the written exam, and didn’t take it again within a year, so despite her experience, she had to start from scratch.For Neely, the hardest thing was “getting up at 6:30 on the weekends.”Zucco agreed, but added that while the weekend physical training was definitely a challenge, the hands-on learning was fun and beat studying.He doesn’t like heights, but that doesn’t excuse him from climbing ladders.Tran found her diminutive size was not going to win her any reprieves.“I found strength I didn’t know I had, thanks to these guys and everyone else in the class. I definitely came a long way since September.”She found ways in which her size was an advantage, such as when the trainees had to crawl through a maze. Then there were the other times. During ladder training, she was part of a team — a decidedly shorter member. “We were running with the ladder and my feet just came off the ground. Someone asked why the ladder suddenly got heavier. I was just hanging on.”Tran is claustrophobic.“The first weekend was airpack training. I think I cried through that entire weekend.”“She did,” Foley chimed in. “But I had her back.”