RUSSELLVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — 19-year-old Aaron Lynch is the very first student to graduate and become employed full time through the fire science program at Russellville High School.
Suited up and ready to take on his first full-time job, Lynch graduated from Russellville High School in May of 2024, but was enrolled in the fire science program.
“I went through the fire science class at Russellville, I got interested in the fire service at career day, actually at school, seen some firemen there and tried on their gear and just fell in love with it,” Lynch said.
Lynch said the deciding factor was when going through the fire science program.
“Getting to do everything hands-on, I’m not much of a book work kind of person, but when we got to go outside and play with the fire and do the burn trailers, and all that kind of stuff… that’s what I most enjoyed,” Lynch said.
Fire Science Instructor John James said he takes students all the way through volunteer certification, which is 160 out of 400 hours required to be a firefighter, helping high school students get closer to employment.
“If you train the students in high school, and you employ them, they’ll never leave you,” he said. “Because it’s their hometown. It’s where they grew up, it’s where they went to school, and now you’ve given them a chance to be a member of a city agency and to serve back to their own community, so they’re very unlikely to leave.”
Lynch said he grew up in Russellville and knows just about everyone in his small town. He said he wants to give back to his community, a place that he is forever grateful for.
“It means a lot to be serving here, especially knowing people here and being able to help people you know,” Lynch said.
Lynch said if it were not for the fire science program, he does not know what he would be doing instead, but he knows he wants to stay in Russellville.
“I would like to retire from here, I wanna work here as long as I can, and retire from here,” Lynch said.
Right now, there are 17 students in the fire science class this year. James tells News 19 he hopes to see some of the students go on to become full-time firefighters.
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