Four newly certified volunteer firefighters have been welcomed into the fold at the Altona/Rhineland Fire Department. Chief Greg Zimmerman says Nathan Klassen, Steve Stoesz, Kristen Opocensky and Craig Braun have now passed their Level 1 firefighter exams.

He explains obtaining this certification is quite an intense process with about three hundred-seventy hours of training involved as part of a nearly year-long course. Zimmerman

Left to right: Nathan Klassen, Steve Stoesz, Kristen Opocensky, and Craig Braun. Submitted photoadds about half of the AFD members were involved in helping these four become firefighters.

"I've had a couple of main instructors teaching (the course) and then they had a couple of others helping them, and then a lot of the other firefighters filling in where necessary. It was an excellent team effort."

With this latest group to become certified, that brings the local department's contingent to twenty-four Level 1 firefighters and Zimmerman says an additional member will be returning from fire school in July which will bring the total number up to twenty-five. He does add that one of the cadets will be turning eighteen this fall, at which point will be joining the department as a full member.

Overall, Zimmerman says the department is in good shape and everyone is finding their new groove since he took over as Chief late last year. He says he is looking forward to the future as members move into some new areas of training such as how to tackle large structure fires.

"We want to be prepared in the event that there's a large-scale fire in town."