County’s Fire and Rescue Recruit Class Complete ‘Hot Mess’ Test

In less than a week, 33 individuals will graduate from Montgomery County and Fire Rescue’s training academy. Before they walk across the stage, however, they are putting their skills to the test in what fire officials call “hot mess.”

“What that stands for is hands on training mock emergency scenarios,” said Pete Piringer, spokesperson for MCFRS. “This is the culmination of our fire and rescue recruit training.”

According to Piringer, recruits go through more than 20 weeks of intense training before becoming firefighters. The “hot mess” test is a scenario-based inclusion of their training at the academy.

“There are about 30 different scenarios,” said MCFRS Chief Scott Goldstein. “There are structure fires scenarios, we’ve had medical scene scenarios, and a whole litany of scenarios that combines that 26 weeks of training they’ve had.”

See more from Recruit Class 43, who will graduate on June 7 at Northwest High School, in the video below:

No fire here. Just the next @mcfrs recruit class putting the skills they’ve learned the last 26 weeks to the test. @mymcmedia pic.twitter.com/adqkIb9Y6P

— Mitti Hicks (@MittiMegan) June 1, 2018

About Mitti Hicks

Mitti Hicks is a multimedia journalist and community engagement specialist with Montgomery Community Media. She is passionate about telling stories that impact our community and may be reached at MHicks@mymcmedia.org and on Twitter @mittimegan.

View all posts by Mitti Hicks