Roanoke Fire-EMS welcomes first all-city recruit class in 20 years

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - If you pay close attention to Roanoke Fire-EMS, you’ll see some new faces in the service, which could help with staffing issues in the city.

Jonathan Yeisley started volunteering with Roanoke Fire-EMS after he experienced two medical tragedies. His wife’s grandfather and his mother passed away within a year of each other.

“Firefighters did respond to both of them,” said Yeisley. “And it really pushed me into getting in the medical side of things and the fire side of things, as well. Anything I could do to volunteer and help.”

Now, he’s one of 15 recruits who graduated Thursday, September 6 from Academy Class #31.

“The past 22 weeks has presented many challenges both physically and mentally,” said Yeisley during his speech at the ceremony.

This is the first all-Roanoke city recruit class the department has had in 20 years.

“It was definitely unique,” added Yeisley. “You know I couldn’t listen to any of the other stories that anybody else was telling me about their recruit school because ours was completely different. It was a one-of-a-kind situation.”

There were many benefits of having an all-city class.

“It was just an opportunity for us to accelerate our hiring process and make sure that we could get some folks out in the field to help out our existing employees,” said Roanoke Fire-EMS Deputy Chief David Guynn.

This helps with under-staffing issues affecting many fire departments due to the national labor shortage.

“I mean this class is going to be a huge help. We’re putting 5 people on each of our shifts,” added Guynn. “So. It’s going to help to fill some of those holes and reduce the need for maybe other folks to come in and work overtime.”

Yeisley says Roanoke City can expect the best from all 15 new firefighters-EMS members.

“We did it the old school tough way and we survived. We survived as a group, and we survived as a class,” explained Yeisley. “We’ll always carry that chip on our shoulder.”

Click here to learn more about becoming a firefighter for Roanoke Fire-EMS.

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