COD Fire Academy graduates class of 18 recruits

The Basic Operations Fire Academy at College of DuPage recently graduated 18 recruits representing five fire departments in Northern Illinois.

The college's Fire Science program runs the Office of the State Fire Marshal-approved firefighter academy, which has run every fall and spring semester since 2012. Each recruit earns 18 college credits toward the fire science associate in applied science degree while completing the one-semester training program. The Fire Science program boasts a 100 percent pass rate on the five state exams that recruits must pass to become Illinois state certified as Basic Operations Firefighters.

Click here to watch a video on the fall 2014 Fire Academy and click here for a slideshow from the graduation ceremony.

The graduating recruits are as follows: Joshua Buenrostro, Patrick Howland and Andrew Kasules, all of the Batavia Fire Department; Ulisses Mendoza, Glenside Fire Department; Nicholas Leone, Warrenville Fire Department; Brad Ahlgren, Travis Chinn, Martin Dwar, Brian Herr, Justin Kielkiewicz, Marco Montaini, Zachary Picha, Padraic Power, Eric Rasmussen, Benjamin Stech, Shannon Sullivan, and Peter Woitovich, all of the Westmont Fire Department; and Simon Christensen, Winfield Fire Department.

Chief Patrick Kenny, who serves as fire chief in Western Springs, provided the keynote speech. Chief Kenny serves as a member of the Illinois Fire Chief's Promotional Assessment Board, the Illinois Fire Chief's Education Foundation and is the past president of the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association. He also sits on the advisory board for the Rosecrance Florian Program for Firefighters and Paramedics.

The ceremony was held in the William Bauer Courtroom in the Homeland Security Education Center. For more information on the Fire Science program and the academy, visit the web site at www.cod.edu/fire.