While everybody around him was “freaking out,” then 16-year-old Ryan Agzour maintained an almost unnatural calm, a seemingly impossible responsibility when having to apply CPR to one’s father suffering what sadly became a fatal heart attack.
While learning Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) in the third session of the high school version of the TEEN CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) program offered by the Newport Beach Fire Department, Agzour recalls thinking, “When will I ever have to use this?”
That answer came just one year later, along with a calling — to become a fireman/ paramedic. In fact, Agzour (now 20) earned his Emergency Medical Technician license while attending Newport Harbor High School. He’s currently enrolled at Orange Coast College, taking the required courses okn hid way to studying Engineering, hopefully, he says, at California State University, Pomona.
Upon earning his BS degree, Agzour plans to immediately apply for the fire service, with the ultimate goal of assignment to Emergency Medical Services.
“I know that a lot of guys want to fight fires, and I’ll probably get flack for wanting to be in EMS, but that’s my dream,” Agzour emphasized. Virtually all firefighters are trained EMTs; becoming a certified EMS requires hundreds of hours more of intensive and specialized training. In fact, today, more than 90 percent of all fire calls require life-saving services.
“What I really like about the TEEN CERT program is that I could really help a lot of people with this knowledge. I learned things like triage, how to splint, how to properly use a fire extinguisher, how to use a defibrillator, and how to do search and rescue,” Agzour shared.
As a young person, Agzour sat with interest (but little spark) during the after-school CERT program. But on one of the class days, a fire engine pulled up, then unexpectedly turned on its lights and sirens. That’s when “I truly turned on to the program and its potential as a career,” he said.
Agzour is quick to acknowledge that the TEEN CERT program is more than just lifesaving and preparation. “It’s a lot of fun, and you meet people you’d normally never meet.”
Another CERT student and recent Corona del Mar High School graduate Damian Agzour, 18, will be attending Texas Christian University on scholarship after summer vacation, which one might argue, isn’t actually a vacation, for he spends his days as a fully qualified Newport Beach Fire Department ocean lifeguard. It’s the perfect fit for the nationally and highly ranked competitive swimmer and water polo athlete.
Despite entering university as a Business Finance major with a minor in Energy Business, Agzour sees this period of life as an exploration to see “what I want to do going to college. I have options: Do I want to go into business or do I want to be a firefighter/lifeguard?” said Stephenson.
For his senior high school project, Stephenson authored a detailed, 10-page paper on firefighting, and had reached out to Fire Department Public Information Officer David Gibson (himself a former firefighter/paramedic) as his mentor. It was through Gibson that Stephenson found out about CERT and the city’s lifeguard service. “I could really see myself doing that,” Stephenson thought.
The CERT program for both adults and students is run by Gibson, who Stephenson compliments as having “done a great job the way he set up every unit; they’re easy to learn and understand, and you grasp a lot of knowledge overall.”
Beyond the learning part, Stephenson said CERT allowed him to become “more involved with the community and get access to various parts of the service community; it’s such a close community,” he enthused.
Fire PIO Gibson explained that TEEN CERT is a “student-focused emergency preparedness and public safety program designed to introduce young people to basic disaster response, disaster psychology, first aid, fire safety, leadership, teamwork and community service.”
TEEN CERT also provides exposure to future pathways into the fire service, lifeguarding, search and rescue, emergency management, public safety, building construction and other related careers.
To date, more than 200 students have graduated from the program, with several voicing interest in the fire service. Overall, it’s preparation for what has at one time or another impacted Newport Beach: earthquakes, fires, tsunamis, severe storms, power outages, and even acts of terrorism.
In 1908, British Army Lt.-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, coined the Scout motto: Be Prepared. Newport Beach TEEN CERT certainly takes that to heart.
For information on the TEEN CERT program, contact David Gibson at (949) 644-3112, or email NBCERT@nbfd.net.
