PHOENIX — The Valley Hispanic Bomberos have been mentoring aspiring firefighters for decades. Now that those volunteers are on Valley firefighter crews, they're carrying on the legacy.
From outreach to training programs, the Bomberos are connecting with Spanish-dominant neighborhoods to get teens involved. They've partnered with Franklin Police and Fire High School in Phoenix to put on workouts for aspiring recruits.
"We're a small organization but our bread and butter is mentorship and community involvement,” said Phoenix Fire Captain Greg Morales who volunteers with the Bomberos.
Capt. Morales got his start with the organization.
"They helped me and guided me to do all the things that I needed to do to get hired," he recalled.
The mentees are known as grey shirts. They look to veteran firefighters like Capt. Morales and Captain Danny Fraijo for guidance to help prepare for the job and hiring process. Capt. Fraijo is the organization president.
"We work out to get you ready, so, to have a station where you can come do that, start putting those values and culture of our job into the people early to get them ready for the process," Frajio said.
Bomberos is Spanish for firefighters. That’s part of the origin story for the group. It was formed in the 1980s when a group of bilingual firefighters were asked to go out and talk to residents about fire safety in Spanish-dominant neighborhoods.
They continue that tradition with different outreach projects, and they hope to inspire kids who grew up just like they did.
"For me one of the biggest things was to be able to go back to the neighborhood that I made it from and be like 'hey, if I can do it, anybody can do that," Capt. Fraijo stated.
Juan Soto is a grey shirt and has wanted to be a firefighter for a long time. In fact, it runs in his blood.
"My great grandfather was a firefighter in Mexico," he said.
The group is showing him the ropes around the fire station. He's learning how to care for the fire truck and keep the station ready so they can answer calls on a moment’s notice. He can’t wait to officially be part of the crew.
"It's an honorable job. You get a lot back from the community. You give to your community. Main question was 'Why not?'" he mentioned.
And if the grey shirts need a little motivation during these tough workouts, they can look to the head of the department, Phoenix Fire Chief Mike Duran III, who started right where they are now, with the Bomberos.
"You take a kid from Maryvale and you say 'Hey it doesn't matter what you look like or where you came from because you can do this job and not only can you do this job, but you can go all the way to the top if you wanted to,'" Capt. Morales said.
For more information visit https://www.vhbomberos.org/.
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