ALL IN THE FAMILY

As NCTC has grown its roster of dual credit fire academies, it’s also seen an interesting trend develop within the ranks of its future firefighter fraternity: sons and daughters following in their parents’ booted footsteps.

“We’ve got quite a few dads whose kids are coming through our program now,” says Strider Floyd, NCTC’s Emergency Services department chair.

Topping the list is Denton Fire Chief, Ken Hedges, someone Floyd calls “a big supporter” of the program’s expansion efforts. In 2017, when NCTC opened its dual credit fire academy at Denton Advanced Technical Center with an initial offering of Emergency Medical Technician training, Hedges’ son Ethan was a member of the first class. After high school, Ethan followed that up with firefighter training and, at the age of 21, is celebrating two years of employment with the Frisco Fire Department. Meanwhile, Hedges’ second son, Caden, as a high school senior, has completed his firefighter training at DATC and will graduate in May with his EMT training completed as well. “It’s pretty amazing,” says their proud papa. “In Denton, we call it our ‘homegrown program.’ These kids come out of high school fully employable as firefighters and able to earn high salaries at the age of 18.”

Ken Hedges and two sons Ethan and Caden

Two others in Denton’s dual credit program have dads who work for the Flower Mound Fire Department: Engineer Robert Sprabary’s son Kyle and Captain Jacob Ventrica’s son Tyler are both juniors. Meanwhile, Arlington firefighter Felipe Alvarado, who used to teach the adult firefighting classes at NCTC, became one of the lead instructors at Lewisville’s dual credit program this year, and his son David, a junior, is one of his students.

“It’s pretty neat how it all worked out,” says Alvarado, who commutes from Lewisville to his job with the Arlington Fire Department. “Since he was two years old, I was in the firehouse, so David has grown up around this. He always said he wanted to be in the military, but when he was going into high school, he got interested in fire service in addition to the military. And then the dual credit program opened up, so here we are.”

Felipe Alvarado and son David