Hallie Mayes
Lantern Staff
Mental health has become a significant topic in the times of COVID. On top of this, college students are under immense stress as everything piles together. Even in these hard times, students in the Fire Science program have chosen to serve communities by working towards a degree with various complications.
Unique to Butler, students have the option to apply for the Fire Science Residency Program allowing them to live on site. In participating in the residency program, students get real life experience and work 24 hour shifts with the El Dorado Fire Department. Students are exposed to traumatic events that can affect them for the rest of their life, responding to real emergencies with the fire department team.
Currently working the Butler County Fire District #3, Professor Judd Gifford has taught on and off at Butler since 2009. He spoke out on a call that changed his prospective on working on as a firefighter.
There was a fire at a propane refill facility. His engine was the first one on sight. A man had gotten severely burned with fire engulfing houses and small businesses. Gifford was part of a team carrying him a quarter of a mile to transfer him to EMS. The man eventually did not make it. With such a traumatic event behind him, Gifford continues to work in this field and train young minds of Butler students to prepare them for life in this work.
“Even though this was several years into my career, it was a real eye opener about the amount of danger we really put ourselves into,” Gifford said.
Per recommendation of Gifford, one of his most promising students Kaleb Ash explains why he chose to go into such a dangerous and mentally tough career.
“I come from a family of first responders and couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” Ash, a freshman, said. “The fire service is constantly expanding and performing more duties.”
Butler has a wide variety of classes to cover for this field and provides security for the mental toughness required for this work. Many fire departments have their own psychologist to help cope with these events.
After completing much training and shared experiences, team members of each department become family oriented. Because of this, departments are able to maintain workers as they look out and care for each other. Freshman Adam Kimball explained how many firefighters are constantly asking if other team members are ok and if they need to talk. Judd confirms this, as he was able to cope with his experiences by talking with other responders.
This field is often overlooked in these hard times, yet is full of the most caring citizens and should be more admired.