Fire Chief Matthew Grafton is proud to announce that Stoneham’s newest firefighter has successfully graduated the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy. Mike Paone completed the fifty-day Career Recruit Firefighter Training Program that was held at Boston’s Fire Academy for Metro-Boston area departments. Classes usually are attended at the Stow or Springfield campuses, but due to the large waiting list, a special academy class was held in Boston to help get firefighters trained sooner.
In these classes, recruits learn all the basic skills they need to respond to fires and to contain and control them. They are also given training in public fire education, hazardous material incident mitigation, flammable liquids, stress management, confined space rescue techniques, and rappelling. The intensive, ten-week program for municipal firefighters involves classroom instruction, physical fitness training, firefighter skills training, and live firefighting practice.
Mike’s father, Lieutenant Rob Paone of the Arlington Fire Department, had the honors of pinning Mike’s badge.