Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Austin Boudreaux, left, listens while Fireman Joel Landry explains what equipment is on the fire truck at Fire Station 7 on Kaliste Saloom Road on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Jaidyn Comeaux, right, talks to Fireman Jordan Holmes from let to right, Capt. Holden Leon and Fireman Hunter Hernandez at Fire Station 5 on Johnston Street on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Jaidyn Comeaux poses for a photo at Fire Station 5 on Johnston Street on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Austin Boudreaux poses for a photo at Fire Station 7 on Kaliste Saloom Road on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Jaidyn Comeaux, right, listens while Fireman Hunter Hernandez, left, explains what is in the latter truck at Fire Station 5 on Johnston Street on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Austin Boudreaux, left, and Fireman Joel Landry, right, go over equipment on Engine 9A at Fire Station 7 on Kaliste Saloom Road on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Jaidyn Comeaux, center, listens while Fireman Hunter Hernandez, right, explains what is in the latter truck at Fire Station 5 on Johnston Street on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station – including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Austin Boudreaux runs to Engine 9A going on a call at Fire Station 7 on Kaliste Saloom Road on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station – including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Jaidyn Comeaux, center, talks to Capt. Holden Leon, left, and Fireman Jordan Holmes, right, at Fire Station 5 on Johnston Street on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Jaidyn Comeaux, right, listens while Fireman Jordan Holmes, left, talks about the fate department at Fire Station 5 on Johnston Street on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Austin Boudreaux, left, listens while Fireman Joel Landry explains what equipment is on the fire truck at Fire Station 7 on Kaliste Saloom Road on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Jaidyn Comeaux, right, talks to Fireman Jordan Holmes from let to right, Capt. Holden Leon and Fireman Hunter Hernandez at Fire Station 5 on Johnston Street on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Jaidyn Comeaux poses for a photo at Fire Station 5 on Johnston Street on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Austin Boudreaux poses for a photo at Fire Station 7 on Kaliste Saloom Road on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Jaidyn Comeaux, right, listens while Fireman Hunter Hernandez, left, explains what is in the latter truck at Fire Station 5 on Johnston Street on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Austin Boudreaux, left, and Fireman Joel Landry, right, go over equipment on Engine 9A at Fire Station 7 on Kaliste Saloom Road on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Jaidyn Comeaux, center, listens while Fireman Hunter Hernandez, right, explains what is in the latter truck at Fire Station 5 on Johnston Street on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station – including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Austin Boudreaux runs to Engine 9A going on a call at Fire Station 7 on Kaliste Saloom Road on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station – including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Jaidyn Comeaux, center, talks to Capt. Holden Leon, left, and Fireman Jordan Holmes, right, at Fire Station 5 on Johnston Street on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
Lafayette Fire Department Explorer Jaidyn Comeaux, right, listens while Fireman Jordan Holmes, left, talks about the fate department at Fire Station 5 on Johnston Street on Saturday, August 20, 2022 in Lafayette, La.. The explorer program is for students ages 14 to 21 to learn about the fire service and shadow firefighters at the station Ð including mentoring, responding to calls and assisting in non-emergency procedures.
One minute, 18-year-old Austin Boudreaux and a firefighter mentor were reviewing the tools on a truck at Fire Station #7 on Kaliste Saloom Road.
The next, the teen and the station’s crew were hauling themselves into the truck and hitting the road with sirens blaring, heading to a medical call where an elderly woman lost consciousness and fell in her home.
Boudreaux has been on between 30 and 40 similar calls in his roughly three years in the Lafayette Fire Department’s explorer program, responding to structure fires, crashes and various medical calls.
“I’ve witnessed firsthand both the destruction fire can do and how important firemen are to our community. It’s like being opened up to something for the first time that you’ve wanted for a long time without realizing it. It was like being awestruck,” Boudreaux said.
The fire department’s explorer program gives teens and young adults between ages 14 and 21 the opportunity to learn the basic skills of the profession, shadow firefighters at local stations and assist with emergency calls.
The program is supported through the Boy Scouts of America. Boudreaux is one of nine explorers in the fire department’s 2022-23 class.
Fire Explorer Supervisor Lee Quattrone, a training officer for the Lafayette Fire Department, said the program kicks off with a weeklong intensive mini fire academy in June, where explorers undergo training in topics such as forced building entry, CPR, rescue, fire science, hose handling and understanding different hydrant pressures.
After the weeklong kickoff, the explorers have monthly refresher sessions and are assigned to a fire station where once a month they’ll spend a full day shadowing the crew on-call, he said.
Except running into a burning building, the explorers can do all the work the firefighters do: cleaning the station and equipment, assisting with life-saving efforts for an injured or unconscious patient, hauling hoses, retrieving needed tools and equipment, and helping fight fires from outside the structure, Quattrone said.
The training officer said he aims to place the explorers in the department’s busier stations to get them as much variety in their exposure as possible. Explorers who return for multiple years are placed at a different station each time to get a feel for how each firehouse runs, he said.
Quattrone said each fire station has three crews, plus vacation and relief crews, giving explorers an opportunity to build relationships with a range of firefighters and work with different personality types.
Getting a taste of the unique social environment that comes with a firefighting career is just as important when evaluating whether the career may be for you as learning the technical skills, he said. Long shifts mean some days you’re around your crew more than your family.
“There are a lot of different personalities at the fire stations. In my experience, when it comes to the EMS, fire, police, military, we all have a certain type of mindset as well and not everyone necessarily conforms to that mindset….Just sociably, just to see if one is going to actually be interested in wanting to be around this or be part of it,” Quattrone said.
Boudreaux joined the explorer program the same way many young people begin extracurricular programs: His mom signed him up.
He hadn’t had exposure to the firefighting field; his father is a detective with the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office but no close family or friends are in the fire service. He was interested, but also skeptical if he would like it.
After the first year, he saw a clear path to a potential career, he said.
Boudreaux, who was homeschooled, said the explorer program gave him an outlet to strengthen his social skills and become more confident speaking in groups and asserting himself with strangers.
A kid with a hot temper, it also gave him a push to develop coping skills and learn to moderate his emotions, because he knew what he could lose if he didn’t, he said.
“[Having a temper] wouldn’t fly at all. Throwing a temper tantrum could cause me to lose my job and it’s not very professional. When I joined the explorers, after the second year, I was like, I need to seriously put this down and throw it away because if I don't, no one in the explorers is going to like me,” Boudreaux said.
A veteran of the explorer program, Boudreaux said he’s in the process of studying to take the entry level civil service exam that’s the first step toward becoming a full-time firefighter.
The prospect of a firefighting career made an impression on 18-year-old Jaidyn Comeaux long before he joined the explorer program this summer.
Reflecting on his behavior in middle school and early high school, Comeaux said he was following the wrong examples and trying to impress his peers by bullying others, getting into fights at school and at home. He was on a bad track, he said.
That began to turn around with the influence of his baseball coach, fire department public information officer Alton Trahan. The 18-year-old said Trahan was his first exposure to firefighting outside of media and that connection helped him begin to picture a life where he could be of service to others.
“I needed to make a change,” the teen said.
Comeaux said he began to put effort into his school work and committed to building a new reputation for himself.
The 18-year-old graduated from Northside High in May. On top of the explorers program, Comeaux said he’s job hunting in the hopes of building his “discipline and leadership skills.” Like Boudreaux, he’s also studying to take the entry level civil service exam to be considered for the fire academy.
Only a few months into the explorer program, Comeaux said he’s already building strong friendships and growing more confident.
“I’ve learned that I’ve got this. There are big things that I can accomplish. There are bigger things that I can accomplish then just hanging around with the wrong people and doing things I’m not supposed to be doing. I’ve learned I can actually be a leader, actually achieve a goal and actually be the right person,” Comeaux said.
Email Katie Gagliano at kgagliano@theadvocate.com.
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
News Tips: newstips@theadvocate.com
Other questions: subscriberservices@theadvocate.com