Mod D completed!

Hello friends!

It's been an incredible season; both challenging and changing. 
One of the biggest accomplishments so far belongs to Blaze.

These feet (in her favorite uniform boots) made the brave journey across two mountains to complete her Fire Fighting Essentials.

It was a little unnerving to go to a different facility 
especially since the students had already completed Mod A, B and C together and she just joined in for D. 
(Mod means Modular, or class--including text/lecture and hands-on practicals-- and there are four of them to complete, about 160 hrs.)
We have been so spoiled; the State Fire Academy 
is less then an half hour away and she completed her first three Mods there. She had to be 18 years old before she could take Mod D.  Because the classes run in cycles, it could be a number of years before D is offered at the Academy again. She decided the distance and drive were worth it to finish her training.

As usual, there was a ton of reading and a difficult test--hard stuff for her--but she passed!

Also, as usual, she aced the practicals! 

One instructor's dad runs on our company
and it was a proud moment to get praised by him. 
"I heard you did better then the boys--" He bellowed for all to hear.

Most of the class came from a more elite department. They had nicer turnout gear, fancy accountablilty tags, more calls per month... but it soon became clear that she had more experience. 
One of the perks of being a small town volunteer!

I'll leave you with this selfie until I have time for more of the story:

Proud Firefighter mom,
                 Zinnia Girl!

Note the green band on her helmet--it indicates a junior member in our fire department. Junior refers to both those who are under the age of 18 and/or has not completed Fire Fighting Essentials training. Those in charge at an incident scene can tell at a glance what jobs she's not permitted to do.