What $2M in federal funding will mean for Modesto Junior College School of Public Safety
Modesto Junior College’s School of Public Safety is trying to get back to the days when it had everything it needed to train firefighters and emergency medical services students on modern equipment, said Ron Cripe, MJC’s director of the Regional Fire Training Center. Federal funding is helping it do so.
The center recently was awarded $2 million, said Cripe, and a fully equipped fire engine alone can cost over $1 million.
The Yosemite Community College District applied for federal funding to get new equipment for MJC’s training center, which is used for continuing education by fire departments across the Central Valley and Mother Lode areas.
The $2 million, from the Federal Consolidated Appropriations Act, has been “earmarked” for MJC’s Fire Academy, said Yosemite Community College District Chancellor Henry C.V. Yong. Fire Academy courses are taught at the Regional Fire Training Center, which is on the MJC College of Public Safety campus. This is the first time the district has looked into funding this way; normally, it applies for grants.
Pedro Mendez, MJC’s dean of career technical education, said Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Josh Harder helped secure the federal money. Harder “was a part-time instructor at MJC before he ran for Congress. Not too many people remember that,” Yong told The Bee. And as a congressman, he has visited the fire training facility.
The money “will support state-of-the-art training for students enrolled in MJC’s Fire Academy and Fire Science degree and certificate programs, as well as for working firefighters who depend on MJC for continuing education in the latest fire-suppression techniques,” according to a press release.
The training facility is shopping around for two main pieces of equipment for students, Cripe said. First, it’s reached out to vendors hoping to find a fire engine.
“Most engines (when they’re very stripped down) are going to be somewhere between $200,000 to $700,000. It depends on all of the uniqueness that they have to have,” Cripe said. “I need something that’s going to pump (water), take equipment from point A to point B out on the grounds and be able to function with everything that we need to, reliably.”
Second, it’s hoping to find a training prop for fire and EMS students to practice potentially life-threatening scenarios without being in danger. “The primary prop is going to be the design of a building that will incorporate all of the rescue type techniques: search, rescue, breach, etc. We need to teach (things like) how to break through a wall to get from one room to another,” Cripe said.
“They definitely need new (training) props,” said Max Raymond, a 19-year-old MJC student who operates the Code 3 Emergency Instagram account. Raymond is enrolled in the Emergency Medical Responder 350 course within the School of Public Safety. In his free time, he listens to local emergency scanner channels and photographs firefighters in action for the 12,000-plus followers on the social media platform.
The training facility currently has a five-story, concrete prop with rooms that are able to be fully engulfed in flames, beds and stoves that can withstand fire and last up to a decade of use, plus more, to give students the space to practice the techniques they learn in the classroom.
“We probably have about 75% get employed in the fire service in some way. Now that may be working for an ambulance company, and going through that process, and then maybe later, jumping into a fire agency,” Cripe said.
The facility is used by Stanislaus’ Community Emergency Response Team and over a dozen fire departments including Modesto, Manteca, Ripon, Burbank and sometimes as far as Sonora, Cripe said.
Agencies within Stanislaus County have an agreement with the facility when it comes to training, so these groups do not have to pay. Any agencies outside of the county pay a fee.
Because the training facility is useful for agencies and other colleges outside the county, Yong said, YCCD is pursuing support from those areas members of Congress for future funding.
