The flames were hot, the smoke was thick, and the danger was real Wednesday morning on the Tarrant County College northwest campus in Fort Worth.
And though these firefighting students have yet to do battle outside the confines of campus, for many of them, putting their lives at risk to help others is nothing new.
“I served with the United States Army,” said student Dustin Cain of Bedford.
He spent time at Fort Hood and also in Iraq. Cain is now one of 22 veterans graduating from TCC’s Fire Service Training Center thanks to a grant and a special program called College Credit For Heroes.
“There’s a large influx [of veterans] coming back,” said program coordinator Ryan Kelly. “We’re going to go from 19,000 to 35,000 coming back to the State of Texas.”
