Fire Trainees
The Boone County Fire Protection District is a high-turnover volunteer fire district with many college-age participants who agree to be on call for about 40 hours a week in exchange for a bunk in a firehouse. Trainees normally go through an extended training before they are qualified for such a position, however during the summer of 2017 enough applicants had time to condense the multi-month part-time training into a one month morning-to-night marathon. I followed two of the trainees through the program writing about, and photographing, them for the Columbia Missourian.
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Wyatt Dawdy moves into his dorm room at Boone County Fire Protection District Station 1 on June 21. Firefighters who are part of the district can live at one of the stations for free as long as they commit to at least 40 hours a week of time on call. Most firefighters end up having problems with over-, rather than under-commiting.
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