For Immediate Release

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: john@jgpr.net

Newburyport Firefighters Graduate from State Firefighting Academy

NEWBURYPORT– Chief Christopher LeClaire is pleased to announce that Firefighters Conor Clancy and Dennis Bligh graduated from the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy last week.

Firefighters Clancy and Bligh are two of the 32 graduates from the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy’s Call/Volunteer Firefighter Recruit Training program Class 57. A ceremony was held at Pentucket Regional Middle School in West Newbury on March 3.

Both men are residents of Newburyport. Clancy has been a call firefighter/dispatcher since 2014. Bligh has been a call firefighter since June 2012 and a dispatcher since October 2014.

“Firefighters Clancy and Bligh are great examples of what it takes to be a part of this department,” Chief LeClaire said. “I commend them for completing their training at the academy. We are excited to have them join the department and know they will serve Newburyport well.”

The intensive nine-week state firefighting academy for municipal firefighters involves classroom instruction, physical fitness training, skills training and live firefighting practice.

Firefighters learned the basic skills they need to respond to fires including how to contain and control them, public fire education, hazardous material incident mitigation, flammable liquids, stress management, confined space rescue techniques and rappelling.

To graduate, firefighters were required to demonstrate proficiency in life safety, search and rescue, ladder operations, water supply, pump operation and fire attack (ranging from mailbox fires to multiple-floor or multi-room structural fires).

The remaining 30 graduates, 29 men and one woman, represent fire departments in Boxford, Georgetown, Groveland, Ipswich, Lynnfield, Merrimac, Middleton, Newbury, Rockport, Rowley, Wenham, West Newbury and Westford.

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