Tulsa Regional Fire Academy At TCC Graduates 8 Cadets

The Tulsa Regional Fire Academy at TCC graduated eight cadets on Friday. The two-year-old program prepares graduates for jobs across Green Country.

Friday’s graduating class is the second ever for the program at Tulsa Community College, and one of the cadets left the ceremony with a job in hand.

Eight cadets just finished a semester's worth of intense firefighter training both in the classroom and out. That's 16 credit hours of everything from HAZMAT awareness to EMS training.

Chief Greta Hurt with the Tulsa Fire Department said the cadets come out of the program prepared to jump into the workforce.

“It brings a pool of not only college-educated, highly-skilled, and certified firefighters to the workforce, but they also have been through an academy, a basic four-month academy that's going to be very similar to what they'll encounter when they get out to their respective departments," Hurt said.

Cadets are now ready to walk into a job with any area fire department, and Cody Welsch plans to do just that. The Claremore Fire Department hired him a few months ago and immediately sent him to complete the program.

Members of the department were there to pin on his badge.

"I said that sounds great, and they said it was going to be an awesome experience - we're going to get all of our credentials that we needed, and then I can come back and start working," Welsch said.

TCC said last year's class was successful too, with cadets getting hired on at places like Tulsa, Broken Arrow, and Sapulpa.

Tulsa Regional Fire Academy