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AP: Kansas teen aims for career as firefighter
Published 3/13/2010 in Features
TOPEKA (AP) — Other than her family, the first people Falicity Wishkeno, then 15, saw after a bolt of lightning jolted her on May 10, 2008, were firefighters from the station about a mile from her Valencia home.
As an Explorer Scout, Wishkeno, now 17, is one of them.
When she turns 18 in June, she wants to become a volunteer firefighter at Shawnee County Fire District No. 4, which covers the areas of Dover, Willard and the Valencia community.
Falicity joined the fire Explorers Post for two reasons. She wants to be a firefighter because her father, Lance Wishkeno, is a firefighter and EMT. For nine years, Lance Wishkeno has worked at the Potawatomi Band Fire Department and was a medic in the U.S. Army for eight years before that.
The other reason is her run-in with lightning in 2008. After a spring thunderstorm, she was showering when the house was struck by a lightning bolt, causing her to have trouble breathing and suffering pain throughout her body. In minutes, first responders from No. 4 station were aiding her.
Wishkeno said the lightning bolt struck a tree, traveled through its roots, entered the house through the plumbing, shot into the bathroom where she was standing in a metal tub and jolted her.
"Ever since the lightning incident, it's just motivated me more to be one," Wishkeno said.
She joined the Explorer Post in August 2009. Explorer posts are attached to agencies, including fire and police departments. Explorers, who are 15 to 20 years old, learn career skills.
"The hope is that once they get the bug and get older, they'll be able to respond to calls and just roll into being volunteers," said Bill Ossmann, fire chief of Shawnee County Fire District No. 4. "It's revitalizing to have young people around."
Wishkeno and other Explorers do the same training as the regular firefighters, such as extricating an injured motorist from a car, placing someone on a "spine board" to keep them immobilized, taking the pulse and blood pressure of a patient, and instructing the patient to move a finger to test the extent of injury.
Deputy Chief Bill Kilian said the Explorers provide a lot of support, including getting gear off the fire truck, helping firefighters put on the air packs, laying out the hoses, laying out the tools firefighters will use to extricate someone from a vehicle and retrieving medical gear.
In February, firefighters and other Explorers voted to present her with the Explorer of the Year Award.
"Everybody in general could see her potential," Kilian said.
She wants to make the fire service her career, either as an emergency medical technician or a firefighter.
"The fact she wants to be a firefighter says a lot right there," Kilian said.
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