Fire academy graduates Baldwin firefighters

Sixteen fire service recruits graduated from the Elk River Fire Academy in an April 24 ceremony at Zabee Theater inside Elk River High School.

The firefighters from Albertville, Baldwin, Big Lake, Elk River and Zimmerman departments are members of the 11th graduating class.

The recruits took part in an intensive five-month course, which includes both classroom and hands-on training to prepare the recruits for entry-level positions in their various fire departments. The recruits were certified in Firefighter I and II and HazMat Operations.

The academy is made possible by folks like Elk River Fire Department Fire Chief Mark Dickinson and Deputy Fire Chief Casey Neumann along with all the instructors.

This year’s academy featured a new approach. The fire academy hired outside instructors to be on the city of Elk River payroll to work for the academy. The training instructors came from all over, including Osakis, Minneapolis and St. Cloud to name a few.

“We had a total of 35 instructors sharing their knowledge,” said Neumann, who was a student in the first graduating class and has been teaching in the academy ever since.

The hope is to help sustain the decade-old academy, and to prevent burnout in the core group of instructors.

“We’re dedicated to maintaining a 4-to-1 student to instructor ratio,” said Neumann, who was promoted from a lieutenant to full-time deputy chief this past October.

The Elk River Fire Department presented the colors at the graduation ceremony. Neumann managed the program and was the emcee.

Nathan Kemper, of Nowthen Alliance Church, provided the invocation. Kevin Fuller was elected the class leader and William Jurmu spoke for the class.

Albertville Chief Eric Bullen, Baldwin Chief Scott Case, Big Lake Chief Seth Hansen, Elk River Chief Dickinson and Zimmerman Chief Ryan Maloney presented the certificates of completion to their recruits.

Elk River Mayor John Dietz and City Administrator Cal Portner spoke at the ceremony, offering strong words of support for the fire service.

“It is greatly appreciated and does not go unnoticed,” an ERFD Facebook post stated.

Dickinson provided the closing remarks.

Here’s a list of the graduates broken down by department.

Albertville: Ben Stock

Baldwin: Laura Anderson, Mitch Demorrett and Jon Neal

Big Lake: Adam Dietz, Samuel Sweat and Jeremy Terwisscha

Elk River: Ryan Oliveira, Arturo Sparzza and Robert Stellmach

Zimmerman: Kevin Fuller, Jordan Hubbard, William Jurmu, Joseph Manthey and Madison Whipple.