Marvin Snodgrass has worked for Northwest Fire District for seven out of his ten years in the firefighting industry. He’s a firefighter engineer and runs the academy as a trainer. He also conducts engineer testing and the engineer academies.
“It gives you that opportunity to give back to the community,” he said.
In 2021, NWFD said they made offers to 15 people and in 2022 they didn’t have an academy. They said in 2023 they made offers to 27 people and this year are hoping to get 15 new people.
“When you have that big field to choose from, you can get some really good applicants,” Snodgrass said. However, he has seen a difference in the amount of applicants to the academy. In 2016, he said the district capped their applicants at one thousand people and actually hit that cap.