What better way to enjoy the sweet UV rays than to spend the day outdoors practicing and training in the art of firefighting? A number of cadets sat atop a roof at the San Francisco Fire Department Training Facility at 19th and Folsom on Tuesday, learning the proper way to use a chainsaw to breach through a roof. The move is often used to create ventilation during a blaze.
After the cadets go through a rigorous training, they become probationary firefighters, at which point they are assigned to a firehouse and spend a year working on a fire engine, a fire truck and an ambulance. Before becoming full-fledged firefighters, though, they must pass a number of tests, one of which is an aerial test in which the probationary firefighter must position a fire engine’s ladder at three windows on a building’s fourth story, a fire escape and, sometimes, the roof.
Oh, and they have to climb the ladder, too. Kevin Day, a probationary firefighter with downtown San Francisco’s Unit 13, spent some time testing his skills today.
Firefighters earn $74,776 to $104,702 per year.
