OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Firefighters and paramedics have an essential role in communities across Florida, yet several fire departments in the region have a need for more staff.
St. Cloud Fire Rescue started a cadet program in 2019 to address this need through mentorship. The program is designed for teenagers ages 14 to 21 years old who have an interest in serving their community and seeing what it is like to become a first responder.
One of the cadets who’s been in the program for four years is Paige Bartlett.
“Originally, I wasn’t planning to want to go into the fire service. I wanted to be a flight medic,” she shared.
Though when a friend told Bartlett about the cadet program, she decided to give it a try, and her passion for helping others evolved into something different from what she had originally planned.
“Then I got a chance to get the fire side of it and I got to be in gear, and I just fell in love with it. So, it pretty much just help me figure out what I want to do in the future,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett has been in the program since she was 15 years old.
“Me being able to actually run calls and meet people like I’m just there to be the reassurance for them as well that they’re going to be okay, and it may be their worst day, but it might be a routine call for us, but being able to be there and just reassure them that they’ll be okay is something really, really cool,” she said.
Bartlett is one of 20 cadets. The program can hold up to 40 cadets each year, and in this program, cadets are required to learn in a classroom setting, through drills and simulations, and through shadowing first responders.
“Right now. I’m in EMT school. I plan to start fire school in September. Just being in this program has just been super great, and it’s given me a little bit of a head start to what I’m expecting for fire school,” Bartlett said.
Cesar Vidal, 17, is also a cadet. He’s been in the program for three years.
“I just wanted to check out the program, and it’s been for me, forming me on the way of my life and how I want to become a firefighter in my future,” Vidal said.
Vidal said the program has opened his eyes up to the role that first responders play in their communities.
“I didn’t know what a firefighter was until I joined. Not until recently. I knew about saving people and how they act in everyday life,” Vidal said. “That helped me out, going out and ride-alongs and going into the stations and seeing an aspect of their everyday life.”
Vidal shared that his goal was to become a firefighter in the military. He said the cadet program is equipping him for his long-term goals.
“A great impact is on our training. The search and rescue have really impacted us in how to make sure our victim is safe and dragging them out of a building safe,” Vidal said. “It’s been helping me really, really, really good on seeing how a victim can be brought out of a building, whether it’s dangerous or not.”
St. Cloud Fire Rescue Deputy Chief Richard Tonks is one of the founding members of the program, which started in 2019.
“It was designed to attract teens to a career and get them on the right path to something to work towards. It helps us out with a pool of people to possibly hire from one day, and we have hired since 2019. We’ve hired nine of our former cadets to be permanent firefighter paramedics with our organization,” Tonks said.
St. Cloud as a city and its fire department are both growing in size. The fire department currently has two future stations that are underway. Tonks said the cadet program allows them to not only mentor young adults and teenagers, but it helps the fire department have a pool of potential applicants to one day hire.
“Teamwork and leadership are two things that we do strive to teach. Even if they decide not to follow a career in Fire Rescue, they’ve learned part of local government and met a lot of friends along the way,” Tonks said. “We have more staffing on the engines than we had when I started out. So, hiring from a program where the teens show us what they’re made of and we know that they’re learning some of Saint Cloud Fire Rescue’s ways. It definitely gives us a pool of people to pull from.”
One of those former cadets, now turned firefighter and EMT, is Remi Berrios.
He was one of the original cadets who started during the program’s first year in 2019. He now helps lead the cadets through the program.
“They showed that they wanted to put the time and effort into me, so I wanted to give that back to these wonderful people here,” Berrios said. “I currently lead the program. We train every other Monday. I asked the kids what they want to learn, and we go off that. There’s kids who are in EMT school right now, and I give them time to come here, and they can study inside. If they have questions, who better not to ask than the people who do it on a daily basis?”
Aimee Rodriguez is also a former cadet and now a fire inspector. She did the program in 2019 alongside Berrios, but decided not to pursue the firefighting path.
“I had a bad call, and I realized I didn’t want to do it anymore. However, with the program and the support, I was able to talk to Chief Tonks and Lieutenant Evans and they supported my decision to become a fire inspector,” Rodriguez shared.
“So, I went to school for that, and I still wanted to give back to my community and serve in the fire department. With fire prevention, that’s what I get to do.”
She said the cadet program was one of the most influential times of her life, and she now works alongside the cadets to educate them on all the ways they can serve their community, including fire inspection work.
“I definitely do share with the fact that, you know, not every call is going to be pretty, but there are support systems,” Rodriguez said. “Anybody in this program, even the lieutenants, advisors, chiefs, are all willing to talk with you and kind of just be there and support. This is a job where, you know, you can’t keep it bottled in. It’s better to talk it out.”
Rodriguez said the support she gained during her time in the cadet program carried over into her career.
“It’s not an easy program. You do work a lot. You put in the work, but you do get a good result out of it, and you get a really good family that backs and supports you,” Rodriguez said.
Enrollment for next year’s cadet program will begin in August.
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