BOISE, Idaho — On Monday, the Boise Fire Department welcomed 33rd recruit academy, the largest fire academy in the department's recent history.
"It's a good group of dudes," said Cory Brady, a fire recruit with academy "I can't wait to grind with them and work hard and try to represent the city as best we can."
Cody Brady stands beside 21 other brand-new Boise fire recruits hoping to eventually become one of the city's brave firefighters.
"My family has been here for five generations and it has done a lot for my family,” Brady said. “So, I think it’s only fair that I give back to them and I think this is the best way possible."
Among the group of new recruits, there is just one woman.
Boise Fire Division Chief Brad Bolen says everyone in the class comes from different backgrounds.
"I'm talking about different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different experiences," Bolen said.
Despite being a diverse recruiting class, everyone in the group is held to the same standard.
"When they get to the academy, what I will always convey to them, is it's really dependent upon your will to exceed, there really is no option to quit," Bolen said.
For the next four months during this intense training academy, these men and women will prepare for the most extreme situations.
"We're an all-hazards fire department,” Bolen said. “Pretty much every emergency you can think of we will respond to. When they leave the recruit academy, they will have all of that baseline knowledge. Then, they will learn the hands-on real-world application of it over the last eight months."
Once the recruits complete four months of training, they will be on an eight-month probationary period with the fire department.
Bolen says it takes about one year to become a full-fledged firefighter.
"Really you just set your mind, if you want to achieve it, you will, if you have any doubt you won’t," Bolen said.