While attending Lambton College helps you meet the educational requirements for pursuing your career aspirations, it also provides the space and opportunity to explore your interests. Its range of facilities and leadership allows for a blended student experience that pushes students toward their personal goals and ambitions. For Alyssa Zirul, this involved completing Pre-Service Fire and Education Training and eventually graduating from the Fire Science Technology program, all while competing and co-captaining Lambton College’s FireFit team.
FireFit competitions take place on courses that involve a series of firefighting-related challenges set up in a timed obstacle course format. The course is often laid out to mimic real-life scenarios firefighters encounter in the field, requiring strength, endurance, a high level of fitness, and specialized training.
Alyssa thrived in this environment during her college experience, taking home gold, silver, and bronze awards in 2022 with her team. In September 2023, Lambton College hosted the National and World Firefit Championships.
“I was amazed competing on Lambton College grounds as well as traveling with the team,” said Alyssa. “It was just a great experience, being surrounded by such a great community and family friends as well.”
Lambton College has excellent training facilities and coaching for the FireFit team, an extension of the elaborate labs and equipment the school offers to students aspiring to become firefighters. Its Fire School boasts the largest live-fueled training centre in Canada, with an apparatus bay where students have access to a fully functioning, state of the art fire station.
“Academically, the facilities were amazing,” said Alyssa. “The professors taught me so many things that expanded my knowledge and education for firefighting.”
The college gives firefighting students a chance to practice and learn in real-life scenarios, building skillsets and knowledge necessary for the demanding profession. The Fire School has real-world props, while the apparatus bay’s three double bays house a fleet of fire apparatus, including an aerial, two engines, a tanker, and rescue support vehicles.
Alongside the practice and training for the physical demands of becoming a firefighter is the educational component of the program. It provides students with the knowledge and understanding of situations they may face in the field, enabling them to make quick and effective decisions in any situation. The range of emergencies they’re educated on spans from pandemics to wide-ranging weather events and man-made and deliberately planned disasters.