For many firefighters in central Texas, Brownwood will be home for the next few months — at least one day of the week.

Some firefighters from Brownwood, Mason and Stephenville, along with an emergency medical technician (EMT) with Lifeguard Ambulance Service of Texas, are part of Texas State Technical College’s Emergency Medical Services – Advanced EMT AEMT certificate of completion program, which began this fall. The class meets each Thursday this semester.

“This program lines up well with my schedule, and by completing the program, I will be bettering myself and the department,” Hayden Ince, a firefighter with the Stephenville Fire Department, said. “It is a big deal for the classes to be offered in Brownwood because it is a lot closer than some of the other classes we looked at.”

Keegan Craddock, also with the Stephenville Fire Department, said he can achieve a personal goal by completing the class.

“I want to be a paramedic,” he said. “This is the next step for me to achieve that.”

Craddock said he is looking forward to what the class offers.

“I know that we will be getting into the more advanced stuff later this semester,” he said.

Also included in the program is TSTC’s Immersive Interactive lab, a virtual training area with realistic settings — enhanced with sounds and smells — that include a garage with a car on fire, a grandmotherly living room, a city park, a lake and a volcano, to name a few.

“It is cool to have an entire environment in one room,” Craddock said. “It will be intense training in a real-world environment.”

Like Craddock, Caleb Burk wants to advance in his career. He has been with the Stephenville Fire Department for 10 months and was impressed with TSTC.

“The facilities are great,” he said. “We will be covering a lot over the next several months.”

Cameron Horton, a Brownwood Fire Department firefighter, is no stranger to TSTC’s Brownwood campus: He is a 2021 graduate of the EMT program.

“It is a big deal that we get these programs going in Brownwood,” he said.

Horton said the Immersive Interactive lab was not available when he was a student at the Brownwood campus, so he cannot wait for his first scenario in the room.

“It is very important to get as close to a realistic environment as we can,” he said. “It will also help with our stress when we are going to an actual call.”

Miranda Hicks is not only the instructor for the class, but also a graduate of TSTC’s Emergency Medical Services program.

“It is definitely different, but I love it,” she said of being in front of the class rather than sitting at a student desk. “I have been waiting for a class like this so we can showcase our Brownwood campus. I am excited for the future of the EMS program in Brownwood.”

TSTC will offer a basic EMT class next spring at the Brownwood campus, Hicks said.

“We have a lot to offer the first responders in a central location,” she said.

According to onetonline.org, the need for emergency medical technicians in Texas was expected to grow 19% between 2020 and 2030.

In its Emergency Medical Services program, TSTC offers an Associate of Applied Science degree in Paramedic, as well as certificates of completion in Emergency Medical Services – EMT, Emergency Medical Services – Advanced EMT AEMT, and Emergency Medical Services – Paramedic. The program is available at the Abilene, Brownwood and Harlingen campuses.

To learn more about TSTC, visit tstc.edu.