Junior Fire Crew Offers Students a Fun and Challenging Career Exploration Experience with BC Wildfire Services

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Story provided by Chelsea Isenor, Director of Communications and Board Administration

From April 23–26, 2025, 19 Grade 11 and 12 students from across the Kamloops-Thompson School District participated in Junior Fire Crew—an annual career exploration event offered by the District’s Trades and Transitions program.

Junior Fire Crew is a partnership between the Kamloops-Thompson School District and BC Wildfire Services. The purpose of the program is to provide a professional and engaging learning environment to introduce students to fundamental wildland firefighting skills and knowledge used by the BC Wildfire Service.

Over the four-day workshop, students gained hands-on training and real-life insight from wildfire fighting professionals in the classroom and in the field. Students received instruction, lectures, and field experience in fire behaviour, organizational structure, suppression tactics, water delivery, safety, communication, teamwork, physical training, and a variety of other topics.

In the BC Wildfire Service Junior Firefighter Program video, Wildfire Technician Les Leduc shares, “The goal on our end is to enhance recruitment, give [the students] a good idea of what we do in the Kamloops zone, how our fire crews work, and then retain these people for a number of years… In our program, the students are fully immersed in the zone life. They’ll show up at 8:00 in the morning, they'll run through an hour of fitness, they’ll do some classroom instruction, and then it's very much in the field.”

When asked about their Junior Fire Crew experience, many students expressed that it was challenging but fun. Carter Biggs, a Grade 12 student from Valleyview Secondary, shared, “It’s been really fun, it's a grind but I’m enjoying it.” Fellow Valleyview Grade 12 student John Hill also shared, “It's been a lot of fun but it's challenging—they work us hard…. The part that's worked me the hardest is the workouts in the morning, those are quite fun because they push you and I like working hard.”

As part of the Junior Fire Crew experience, students participate in the WFX-FIT Test—a challenging fitness endurance assessment that tests the students’ ability to meet the rigorous demands required to safely and efficiently complete the critical emergency tasks involved in wildland fire fighting in Canada. All BC Wildfire Fighters have to complete the WFX-FIT Test in under 14 minutes. This year, all Junior Fire Crew students finished the challenging course.

Many students who have participated in the Junior Fire Crew program over the years also have personal experiences with wildfires that have occurred around Kamloops, which inspired them to join the program. Ani Fournie, a Grade 11 student from @KOOL School, shared, “Last summer, the Shetland Creek wildfire went through our valley. It was a good reminder that houses were saved because of structural firefighters.”

As for advice they’d offer future students who want to join Junior Fire Crew, they all agreed with Ani’s statement, “Do it, but be prepared for lots of hard work.” John shared “Absolutely do it, make sure you train before because they definitely work you hard in the workouts.” Carter added, “Do it, it's a good experience. It’s a grind but definitely worth it.”

Career Development is one of the District's key priorities in the 2022-2027 District Strategic Plan. Offering engaging career exploration opportunities for students is just one way the District helps prepare students to attain their career and occupational objective and have plans for who they aim to become through their career pathway.