When his adrenaline finally settled enough to let him sleep Sunday night, 17-year-old Matt Aragon dreamed about fire.
Monday morning, Aragon and the 13 other young men in the Rock Canyon High School fire science class suited up in heat protective gear to attack their first fire with the help of South Metro Fire Rescue and Littleton Fire Department.
Aragon, who has wanted to be a firefighter since he was 12, said the year-long class focuses on firefighting and paramedics basics. The three-hour, four-day-a-week class progresses to the fire simulation day, when they get to put all their skills to the test.
“Taking this class is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” Aragon said. “It’s everything I need to know, and I’m so young still.”
Instructor George Piccone followed his high school students inside the training building made out of steel and concrete and designed to look like a home. Smoke billowed from window and door cracks, and the orange glow of flames was visible from the outside.
Each student had a firefighter mentor in the building.
In the program’s fourth year, the students practiced entering, using a fire hose, extinguishing staged blazes in the building, ladder technique and more.
“They really get a major leg up,” Piccone said. “This has turned out to be a really good program.”
The success rate for students going on to find jobs in the public safety field after taking his class is 100 percent, Piccone said. Normally, he said, students going through a paramedic program or similar tracks have a 50 percent failure rate.
“A cool thing is, next year we have four girls signed up,” he said.
Aragon exited his first simulation with excitement plastered across his face.
“It was so hot in there,” he said. “It was dark and really smoky. I felt really powerful.”
Before entering his first burning building, 17-year-old Evan Davros got a pep talk from his firefighter dad, Tom, who was accompanying his son to the class.
The Rock Canyon High School senior grew up in a firehouse and has dreamed of donning the gear, as his dad did, since he was a little boy, said his mom, Tina Davros, who snapped photos of her son’s big day.
“This life is all we’ve ever known,” Tina Davros said. “It’s such an amazing experience for the kids.”
Tom Davros, who has been a firefighter for 18 years, patted his son on the back before they headed into the flames.
“It’s pretty remarkable,” he said. “It’s fun to see the new generation and the energy they bring to the job.”
Students from around Douglas and Arapahoe counties are going to Rock Canyon High School specifically to take this course.
“They’ve grown so much,” said Littleton Fire Department firefighter Sara Banks, who works with the students. “Everything comes together today.”
Elizabeth Hernandez: 303-954-1223, ehernandez@denverpost.com or @ehernandez
