First Rookie In Years Joins BIA Fort Peck Fire Crew

Sonny Reum, 33, completed his pack test Wednesday morning, May 26, the first community member on the reservation in years to complete prerequisites for rookie school to become an AD (temporary-hire) firefighter for BIA Fort Peck.

BIA is again hosting and training Fort Peck AD firefighters to develop strong teams of locals for fire programs and dispatches.

BIA Fire encourages drugand alcohol-free fit people, age 18 and up, to team with the BIA fire crew right away to work this summer and 17-year-olds to think about 2022. Usually, people apply in winter to work in summer, but this spring we are looking for new firefighters.

Required steps to become an AD firefighter are, in order: 1) complete a medical examination scheduled at your doctor by BIA Fire, 2) pass a urinalysis drug test, 3) pass the pack test, and 4) complete our rookie school: online and in-person required coursework and fieldwork.

BIA Fire offers access and helps students and now can schedule rookie school more than once a year.

Reum finished his pack test, a three-mile fast walk carrying a 45-pound pack in less than 45 minutes, without any jogging: both feet cannot be off the ground at once.

“For me, it wasn’t a big deal,” Reum said. “A physical job with some adrenalin is what appeals.”

His family is enrolled at Fort Peck, while he is enrolled at Mille Lacs Reservation in Minnesota.

More candidates are pack testing soon.

BIA’s last recruiting for firefighter rookies at Fort Peck was in about 2012, yet new management plans to create a thriving program of fire crews here within a few years, for local or distant work.

Many Fort Peck families have great memories of AD firefighting. Tribal members receive hiring preference, yet non-tribal folks may apply.

Call 406-768-3666 for more information. More About The Pack Test

Pparticipants wear a weight vest and their own clothes and must walk without jogging. Short people do fine, yet this test may be a bit easier for long-legs.

Until the 1990s, federal firefighters’ fitness requirement was the “step test” on and off a high wooden box to a metronome for five minutes. An EMT took your pulse at the end and only slow heartbeats passed.

That challenge gave way to a required 1½-mile run in 11:40, which was too easy: our high school runners would finish in about 9:45.