Canadian trainee gets warm welcome at Gladewater FD

Don’t let him fool you: Kenny Ree-Hembling is not from a French-only enclave of Canada, he speaks English just fine.
That said, the firefighter trainee enjoys a good practical joke, and his comrades at Gladewater Fire Department are happy to help sell the gag.
Ree-Hembling is one of four fellows from the Great White North currently perfecting their skills as first responders at the Kilgore College Fire Academy. He’s the only one bunking in Gladewater, however, getting on-the-ground experience (and lending a hand) in addition to his coursework.
A native of Prince Rupert in southeastern British Columbia, Ree-Hembling is the first trainee to accept a berth at the local fire department during his 12-week stint at the community college. A typical day includes eight hours of training in Kilgore from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The rest of the time, he’s living and working at the station house here.
“What definitely sold it for me was getting to stay at this fire hall,” he said: “The hands-on experience, you can’t put a price tag on that.”
According to GFD Chief Mike Simmons, the pilot program is open to any trainee, stateside or Canadian. It just so happened that the first person to embrace the opportunity traveled about 2,800 miles for the gig.
“What we’re doing over here is a little unique and different,” Simmons said. “I wanted it to be more of an internship. It gives us another set of hands at the station on nights and weekends. You get hands-on experience in real world situations.”
Granted, Ree-Hembling still doesn’t have all the necessary certifications yet, so he can’t dive into every single task GFD firefighters face. He pitches in wherever he can, though, whether it’s hefting a broom handle at the station or responding to a call.
“He can’t go into fight the structure fire,” Simmons explained, “but he can pull hose, carry tools.”
The 30-year-old father of three set out on Jan. 13 — the one-year wedding anniversary with his wife, Amber.
“She’s very supportive of this,” Ree-Hembling said, warmly. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a couple of years.”
Back home in Prince Rupert, he knows seven other career firefighters who honed their skills at the Kilgore College academy.
“They’ve had nothing but good things to say about the program,” Ree-Hembling said. “They strongly recommended that I come down here.
“We’ve done some training in-house here. When we actually did it in class I kind of knew what was coming.”
According to Simmons, the trainee’s stay at GFD — combined with his ingrained good attitude — is making for well-rounded experience, giving the rookie a bit of a leg-up on some of the challenges at KC. The local firefighters also take into account their colleague is putting in long days in training.
“The fire academy’s very physically demanding; we don’t want to push it too hard,” Simmons said, but Ree-Hembling’s eager to learn all the ins and outs: “He’s been responding almost every night with us. He’s really hungry for that experience.”
From such a solid start, Simmons is eager for more rounds of fire academy trainees take advantage of the concurrent GFD internship.
“It’s been fun to watch the camaraderie, watch it develop,” he added, and the Gladewater fire roster is enjoying Ree-Hembling’s cooking skills. “He benefits from getting a place to stay. We benefit from getting another set of hands around the station.
“He’s getting the full fire station life experience for four months.”