DORAL, FLA. (WSVN) - There’s a new crop of firefighters to help Miami-Dade County residents in an emergency, and two members of this graduating class made it a family affair.
It has been a challenging 14-week road, but Kate Mansilla and her fellow graduates from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Class 132 will make the largest fire rescue department in the country even bigger. “Best day of my life,” she said.
The graduates were selected out of nearly 10,000 applicants. “We went through four months of training, of running, push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups,” said Kate. “Everything you can think of, and we’re here.”
But Kate is not the only Mansilla who marched down the aisle in Doral on Friday while chanting “MDFR.” Her brother Matthew stood right alongside her.
And right there with them was their mother, Wendy Mansilla, a retired firefighter.
“They both saw what I did every time I left home,” said Wendy, “but I always came home and said it was the best job ever, helping people, fighting fires. It’s great.”
It’s a duty that the next generation is more than willing to take on. “She’s the reason I do everything. She’s my hero,” said Kate.
“We’re running in while everybody is running out, but we’re proud to do what we want to do, and I know they’re proud to do it, too,” said Wendy.
The Mansilla siblings are hardly the only second generation firefighters in this group. Class 132 includes brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews of South Florida first responders.
Andrew Stridfeldt and his brother are third generation firefighters. He said he never had any doubt about what he wanted to do.
“I grew up in the station with my dad, grew up hearing stories about my grandpa, and then, when my brother came of age he joined the fire service as well, and I followed all three of them,” said Stridfeldt.
The graduation was a proud occasion for those who trained Class 132 and saw them grow. “We want to impart how lucky the residents and everyone coming through Miami-Dade Fire Rescue is to have the highest-level, dedicated employees, with the amount of training that they have, serving them to any 911 call,” said MDFR Division Chief Jeff Strickland.
The brand-new firefighters have the weekend off. On Monday, they will find out what their assignment is and report to their new stations.
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