Our explorer department is made up of girls and boys from the age of 14-18.  Any one can be an explorer and it is a fun learning experience for the kids.  They are just like the real fire fighter but they are not able to go into a building.  This helps the kids know that they are able to do this and it lets them know that if they do want to be a fire fighter they will be able to sign up and see if that is really what they want to do.

They are able to go to all of the trainings that the fire fighters go to and they will have the same amount of training hours as any other fire fighter that took the same classes.  I know that there are young guys on the department who are on and taking the training so that they will have the training hours to do what they are wanting after they are 18.

This is a fun way for the kids to hang out and be out of trouble and they are learning at the same time. 

A few members of the fire department who were explorers before they were fire fighters are now Assistant Chief and Caption.  They are some of the youngest fire fighters on the department and are also some on the highest-ranking fire fighters on the department.