Campbell County Fire Department to bring back cadet program

GILLETTE — This fall, the Campbell County Fire Department will be bringing back an old institution with the return of the department’s cadet program — albeit with a number of changes since the last time it was around.

As part of a presentation to the Campbell County Joint Powers Fire Board during its regular monthly meeting Wednesday evening, Capt. Mike McReynolds laid out the basic framework of the new two-year program, which will include about 10 teenagers aged 16 to 18 and begin in August.

Originally developed in the early 90’s, the Fire Department’s previous cadet program even won a national award in 2001.  But it was tarnished by a series of scandals involving former Fire Chief Gary Scott, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison for state and federal molestation charges.

Wednesday, Deputy Chief J.R. Fox said the program was ultimately discontinued about a decade ago due to low interest from the public as well as a lack of available instructors.

McReynolds said the new program is meant to provide education and hands-on training to students expressing interest in fire fighting as a career, providing a means of jumpstarting training.

The program will also serve as a pipeline for recruitment into either the Campbell County Fire Department or similar organizations such as the Bureau of Land Management or the U.S. Forest Service.

“Talking with Captain McReynolds, I think we’re going to put a little fine point on the program, a little bit more emphasis on quality over quantity, and really try to target those individuals in that 17- to 18-year-old stage of life, when maybe they’re trying to figure out what (they) want to do,” Fox said. “Hopefully we can capture some of those folks and get them interested in fire service.”

What the program will look like

Lasting between October and May each year, as well as the potential fire summer employment with the department, cadets will meet two nights per month for classroom-style training as well as one Saturday for four hours to practice more hands-on skills.

After completing introductory training, the cadets will also be able to ride as passengers for Fire Station 1, the main fire station, or Fire Station 3, which is just down the road from Thunder Basin High School.

Cadets will function as a fourth or fifth rider, but they will have limited duties and not be allowed on initial attack operations or as part of medical calls or traffic accident responses.

McReynolds also stressed that in all cases, both in the field and during education events, a minimum 1:2 firefighter to cadet ratio will be maintained at all times, with no one-on-one trainings allowed.

Explaining the decision to raise the minimum age for the program, McReynolds said the re-envisioned cadet program will have a more professional focus, describing it as more of an extended internship that provides education and hands-on training. It also will decrease the number of hoops graduates need to go through to become part-time or seasonal personnel and eventually full-time firefighter candidates.

The program includes CPR/first aid training, Hazmat awareness and basic wildland fire training. It will not include training limited to those 18 and up, such as live burn training.

“Coming out of this cadet program, they won’t have the live fire training, we can’t do IDLH (Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health) skills with them until they’re 18, but everything up to that they will have signed off, and they will be able to test for State of Wyoming Firefighter 1,” McReynolds said.

He also noted that limiting the program to those 16 and up will allow students more flexibility in attending classes and training, as they could conceivably drive themselves rather than be dependent on parents or other family members for transportation.

Those interested in joining the program need to apply by filling out an application when the program begins recruiting in mid-late August. They will also need to submit a resume and  references as well as sit down for an interview before the panel makes its selection.

“This will allow them to start approaching some of those professional skills or soft skills that they’re going to need applying for jobs and introduce them also to our officers and firefighters to make sure that their personalities will be a good fit,” McReynolds said.

There are still many parts of the program that need fine tuning, McReynolds said, including picking specific class days and determining what further training may be needed following graduation.

But he expects the program to get a lot of interest.

“We think there will probably be a high interest initially, but we wanted to keep that somewhat small, to maintain focus and allow good, intensive training for these kids,” McReynolds said.

Fire Chief Jeff Bender said the program also provides a way for the department to stoke interest in firefighting as a career early on, potentially providing the department with more long-term recruits with ties to the local community. He said he is happy to see members of the current department step up to make it a reality.

“You have to have some individuals within your leadership that are willing to do extra,” Bender said. “When you have this passion to develop youth, it’s not something you can assign to someone, you have to have those kinds of people on the floor that are willing to spend their evenings to do extra things. We do have some of those people on staff now that have stepped forward to say, I’ll lead that program and know how important it is to try to develop Campbell County youth to take jobs that are committed and connected to our community.”

This story was published on February 18, 2025.