High Point Fire Department welcomes 16 new firefighters

HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — The High Point Fire Department graduated its 56th class of firefighter recruits, welcoming them to the fire department after nearly seven months of training.

This class is larger than other recent groups of recruits. Overall, 16 cadets graduated.

Some are military veterans, and five came from neighboring fire departments.

“This is a mixed class. So we have 11 recruits that went through the entire process, and then we had five fast-track folks who got hired that came from other fire departments. So they were already trained, and what we did with them is we just put them through a four-week program to kind of acclimate them,” HPFD Battalion Chief of Training Tim Layton said.

The HPFD’s graduating cadets completed up to 900 hours of training.

This graduating class of cadets is the second group to have firefighters from other departments. Those cadets were able to fast-track their training, which took four weeks.

Even with 16 joining the fire department, the HPFD still needs more firefighters.

They are short more than 30 firefighters and need to meet the needs of a growing city.

The fire department has faced recent challenges with recruitment.

“We have had issues with recruitment and retention since COVID with retirements and folks going to other fire departments across the state,” Layton said.

After graduation, the new firefighters will be assigned a company and will begin their work with the department.

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