The Big Island Fire Department recently held commencement exercises for the 16 members of its 37th firefighter recruit class.

The new firefighters are: Eddie Abe, Randy Castro, Micah Chew-Marumoto, Helaku Hedlund, Brysen Heidenfeldt, Marcus Helm, James Kupahu, John Martin, Aaron Mitchell, Adam Naehu, Andrew Penny, Yurik Resetnikov, Jeremy Tekurio, Kyle Teves, Tay Soares and Kyle Vares.

The class underwent 11 months of instruction and field work that included training in wildland fires, handling hazardous materials, lifeguard certification and driver training. The recruits also earned Emergency Medical Technician basic and intermediate certification. They spent nine weeks applying their newly learned skills on ambulance runs from Big Island fire stations and at the emergency rooms and obstetrics and intensive-care units at Hilo Medical Center and Kona Community Hospital.