HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (Feb. 28, 2018) – Henderson County Career Academy’s Fire Academy will be receiving a working fire engine on Thursday, March 1 at 9 a.m., thanks to the generosity of the Hendersonville Fire Department.
A push-in ceremony involving current and graduated Fire Academy students and members of local sponsor departments will take place shortly after the engine’s arrival at the Innovative High Schools building. Hendersonville Fire Department Chief Joe Vindigni explained the push-in ceremony dates back to the times when fire trucks didn’t have motors and were carriage-driven.
“The horses couldn’t back up very well,” Vindigni said. “So when they got the fire truck to the station, they would disconnect the horses, and the firefighters would push the carriage into the station. And that’s really where the tradition came from.”
Approved by Hendersonville City Council on Feb. 6, the HFD’s decision to donate the working engine to the Career Academy stems from the department’s desire to become more involved with the high school Fire Academy, Vindigni said.
“We’ve got young students that go through that program and start working on their certifications,” he said. “Those are the individuals who are going through our hiring process, and we wanted to find a way to give back to the program.”
Vindigni said when the HFD replaced its Engine 2 during the summer of 2017, he began conversations with Barnett about repurposing the station’s old Engine 2 – a 1991 American LaFrance – as a training apparatus for the Career Academy, since the Fire Academy has never had a fully functional truck.
Barnett said the Fire Academy has a 1958 pump model that drives but has never run well enough to pump water, and another old fire truck that didn’t run was used as a static prop.
“This (truck from the HFD) will give the students opportunities to actually do practicals on a working apparatus instead of having to simulate everything,” Barnett said. “It’ll be more realistic training and application for them.”
And, Vindigni said, “It should last the school system 15-20 years.”
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