The Howard and Suamico Fire Departments, in tandem with Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC), are helping to empower young students to become firefighters through the high school program, Building Up Future Firefighters (BUFF).
The Suamico Fire Department first attended the Bay Port High School career fair two years ago with little hopes of finding many students willing to participate in a firefighting internship. However, the opposite proved to be true.
“The interest that we had was alarming,” said Suamico Fire Department Fire Chief Joe Bertler.
After realizing their success at the career fair, the fire department applied for a grant that would allow students to complete a “Firefighter 1” certification program at Bay Port.