HORACE LANGFORD, JR. / PVT Kenneth Swiger, a cadet in the Pahrump Valley Fire Rescue Service Academy, carries a 50-pound hose during the cadets' third and final physical agility test Sunday, March 30. HORACE LANGFORD, JR. / PVT Cadet Daniel Cavanaugh stacks rolled fire hoses during part of the Pahrump Valley Fire Rescue Service Academy's physical agility test. The test must be completed within nine minutes and consists of a grueling obstacle course through which the future firefighters learn to operate heavy equipment while wearing turnout gear. ' HORACE LANGFORD, JR. / PVT Nate Alexander, Pahrump Valley Fire Rescue Service cadet, pounds the 75-pound weight attached to a track on a Keiser Sled in an attempt to move it four feet during the final physical agility test the future firefighters underwent prior to graduating. The excercise is meant to train cadets in forced entry or ventilation of buildings. Advertisement

Nine Pahrump Valley Fire Rescue Service Academy cadets spent the morning of Sunday, March 30, undergoing their final physical agility test.

The test is really more of a grueling obstacle course designed to test the cadets' agility in operating equipment while wearing full turnout gear (which weighs about 60 pounds including the "air pack," or oxygen tank) all in nine minutes or less.

As Cadet Daniel Cavanaugh put it, "It's designed to kick your butt because a fire ground will kick your butt."

Each of the cadets had to hook up deluge nozzles to a fire hose, which weighs about 50 pounds dry.

This allows cadets to test how well and quickly they can use their hands while wearing thick gloves.

The cadets then carried five rolled-up hoses, one at time, 50 feet and stacked them. Then they got to do it again in reverse.

After that, it was on to raising an extension ladder and then lifting another very heavy ladder off a fire engine, walking with it around cones and bringing it back to the engine.

This gives the future firefighters practice in maneuvering heavy equipment around possible obstacles they can encounter at a fire, for example, parked cars in front of a burning structure.

Once the ladder was conquered (and the clock still ticking), it was off to the Keiser sled, a device with a 75-pound weight on a track in the middle designed to allow cadets to stand astride it.

They then have to hit the sled with a rubber mallet hard enough to move it four feet.

This simulates situations in which the cadets may have to force entry into a building or knock down walls for ventilation.

The final stretch of the test is dragging 200 feet of hose a distance of 250 feet and then dragging it back again.

"The hose drag was the hardest," Cadet Kenneth Swiger, 17, said. "It's really heavy."

"A firefighter pretty much has 100 pounds on him at all times," Cavanaugh said of the test.

This was the third time the cadets went through the test, but the rest of the seven-month training program wasn't a cakewalk either.

Becoming a firefighter, as the training illustrates, is a goal that takes an immense amount of commitment and dedication to achieve.

Neither quality is lacking in Shannon Brecik, who at 5-feet-1-inch tall admits being on the petite side. It adds a bit of an extra challenge.

"The boys are really good at it, they get it done in five or six minutes," Brecik said. "But I got it done in nine."

Brecik, 31, is already seasoned at firefighting, having been a volunteer with the Gardnerville Volunteer Fire Department, in Douglas County, for nine years prior to moving to Pahrump.

Brecik, who went from being a probationary volunteer to an EMS lieutenant while with GVFD, said she got plenty of practice at the station, which she described as "pretty active; I would say it's comparable to Pahrump."

She moved to Pahrump to attend nursing school but after two years decided to return to firefighting.

"I just missed it," Brecik said. "I'm better pre-hospital than in-hospital," she joked.

For Swiger, the decision to become a firefighter was primarily influenced by his father, who has also been a firefighter for 28 years.

Cadet Nate Alexander found himself making a choice between being a firefighter or a police officer.

He said he knew he wanted to go into some type of public service after growing up watching his father be a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer.

Ultimately, Alexander opted for the "fire side" of public protection.

"I'm really enjoying it," Alexander said of the training. "It's definitely something I want to make a career out of."

When asked about Sunday's test, the cadet said, "It gets your heart rate up."

"The training overall definitely pushes you and having the other cadets there is really great," Alexander said.

All the same, he admitted, "Even though I enjoyed it, I'm excited to get it done."

Cavanaugh, at 43, said he's "the fossil of the group" and the other cadets call him "'the old man.'"

Cavanaugh also has experience as a volunteer firefighter, having worked for both the California Department of Forestry and locally for the Mt. Charleston Volunteer Fire Department.

He decided to volunteer here in Pahrump but liked the fire department so much he decided to make a career of it.

He described the seven-month training course as "para-militaristic."

"It's designed to push you to your limits," Cavanaugh explained. "You've got to know when to be a follower and when to be a leader, and the training teaches you that."

For now, the cadets can enjoy a minor breather while they prepare for their graduation Sunday, April 6.