By Clark Judge
(August 21, 2024) — Where there’s smoke, there’s not only fire. There’s Peyton Dixon and Sean Link.
The two are fifteen-year-olds who live in Killingworth, will enter their sophomore years of high school this fall and, at first glance, seem not unlike most teenagers. Peyton is a three-sport athlete at Haddam-Killingworth High School who works part-time on weekends and enjoys running. Sean is a Boy Scout who attends Vinal Tech, enjoys fishing with his Dad in Maine, and runs cross country.
So there’s really not much that distinguishes them from their peers except … well, except for this: Where others run out of burning buildings, Peyton and Sean don’t. They run into them.
“Crazy?” Sean said. “Yeah, a little bit.”
Yet the two spent one week this summer at the Connecticut Fire Academy in Windsor Locks learning how to … you guessed it … combat fires. That was in July when they joined twenty-eight other students from across Connecticut at a six-day residential session. From 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m., they were immersed daily in practical training that included just about everything: Search and rescue … equipment carries … ladder entries … forcible-entry techniques … hands-on skills like dressing a fire hydrant …
Wait. Dressing a fire hydrant?
“Here in Killingworth we don’t have hydrants,” Peyton explained. “So, it was new to me personally. You’re just taking the hose line and attaching it to the hydrant to get a water supply. But, for me, that was tough.”
Or not.
She and Sean not only graduated from the Academy but, as the group’s public information officer, Peyton delivered a two-minute commencement speech (“It definitely summed up the week,” Sean said). Then they joined others afterward in an exercise where they responded to a simulated multi-story building fire. Peyton was the officer on an aerial truck ladder team. Sean was on the command team. Together, they aced the final.
“I was really nervous going in because I thought I wasn’t going to know enough to demonstrate my skills,” said Peyton. “But everyone was flexible. They taught us everything, and they didn’t expect us to go out immediately and put out a fire.”
In the end, however, they did. Class dismissed.
“I’m very proud of myself,” Peyton confessed. “I like getting as much knowledge as I can for anything I do.”
“Me, too,” echoed Sean. “I’ve never been that active, always doing something every single minute. We hardly had any time to rest. But I would definitely do it again.”
Peyton and Sean are junior firefighters with the Killingworth Volunteer Fire Company, joining a year ago when they became eligible at the age of fourteen. According to Fire Chief Rick Darin, the KVFC has eight junior members (ages 14-17), but only two were chosen to attend the Connecticut Fire Academy this summer.
Peyton Dixon and Sean Link, come on down.
“It’s a week long,” said Darin, “and a pretty strenuous program where they’re introduced to the Fire Service. It has a paramilitary structure, a physical component, a responsibility component, and they get up early in the morning go to bed late.
“We have an Assistant Chief who went through the program (Ethan Drain), and he went back the next year and went to a higher level. It’s not something every kid wants to do, but it appeals to the caliber of individual who wants to give to the community … and these are two exceptional young people who do.”
The Connecticut Fire Academy is a state-sponsored program designed to introduce high-school students to the Fire Service and learn more about the profession. Over the past twenty years, the Academy has not only evolved from two five-day sessions each summer to two six-day residential periods; it produced alumni who attended college in fire and EMS programs.
That might be the case with Peyton and Sean, except they’re already ahead of schedule. Each plans on attending EMT classes at the Killingworth Ambulance Association in 2025 after they turn sixteen, the minimum age for participation.
For Peyton, it’s another step toward a goal of attending the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Sean, meanwhile, is still weighing his options. He’s not sure about a secondary education but is so keen on firefighting that he said he’d like to serve in the Fire Department of New York. No matter what each does, both agree that this summer’s experience was as invaluable as it was unforgettable.
“What they got,” said Darin, “is they figured out what the Fire Service is all about and, at a higher level, figured out what service in general is all about. There’s a higher level of responsibility and respect. They got to try things that are ‘out of the box’ and realized that, if they apply themselves and work hard, they can achieve things in life. In essence, it’s a tiny glimpse of what they can do in their life.”
Photos by Clark Judge
