Austin Owens on Saturday stood suited up in full firefighter gear, blasting water from a hose to put out an imaginary fire in a large, open yard near the Cicero Township Volunteer Fire Department.
But soon, the fires won’t just be imaginary for the 18-year-old Tipton High School senior. In three weeks, right after graduating high school, he’ll be eligible to join up with with the volunteer department as a certified firefighter.
And that’s thanks to the department’s junior firefighter program. For the last 15 years, Cicero Township, which encompasses the city of Tipton, has opened up the station to any high school student who wants hands-on training to prepare for a career in firefighting — or just a taste of what the profession is all about. That includes includes spraying hoses, search and rescue, filling up tanker trunks, cutting open vehicles to extract drivers, doing CPR, putting out brush fires, and just about everything else a rural firefighter might have to do on any given day.