Rutherford County, TN - Class 24-01 of Rutherford County Fire and Rescue graduated on Friday, April 5, 2024 in a ceremony held at New Vision Baptist Church.   

The program consisted of 560 hours including classroom instruction, field exercises and units on physical training, medical, forcible entry, hazmat, extrication, and live burns.  The weeks were filled with introducing and demonstrating the skills required to become an effective firefighter. 

Chief Larry Farley said, “These 16 young men who have completed nearly 600 hours of firefighting training, have chosen, in my opinion, the greatest occupation in the world. They have chosen to put the citizens of Rutherford County first before themselves. John 15:13, says, “Greater love have no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”. They have worked hard and learned much in the last 14 weeks. I am very proud of them and all they have accomplished.”

Assistant Fire Chief/ Fire Marshal Joshua Sanders said, “ I am truly proud of the hard work and dedication demonstrated by these young men. They have worked tirelessly over the last 14 weeks to prepare to serve this community and our County will truly be safer because of them. “

The graduates are Andrew Barnett, Conner Blakely, Soloman Childers, Gage Dotson, Maurice Gordon, Brandon Grimes, Emilio Hernandez, Cayden Jacobs, Brock Larson, Jake Libbey, Gabriel Lombard, Luke Maniscalco, Trent Paulsen, David Rose, Brandon Schroeder, and Justin Stults (See photo above this article).

Rutherford County Fire Administrative Assistant Marissa Morales chronicled the training on social media with weekly summaries and pictures of training events.  One of the posts can be found at https://www.facebook.com/Rutherfordcountyfirerescue.

The graduates will now start their new work shifts.