Career firefighter receives promotion to lieutenant

Pahrump Valley Fire and Rescue Services welcomed a new lieutenant into its ranks this month.

Kevin Clickner, born and raised in Las Vegas, was promoted to lieutenant on Jan. 4.

Fire Chief Scott Lewis said several qualified individuals were vying for the lieutenant position.

"All candidates did a good job and represented themselves and our department well, especially in the oral interview portion of the process," he said. "However, cumulative points revealed that Kevin Clickner amassed the highest score. Therefore, I was pleased to announce Kevin's promotion to lieutenant supervising the "B" Platoon."

He noted the process included an aptitude exam, along with a separate essay exam and oral interviews, conducted by both internal and external evaluators.

Clickner began his career after earning an associate's degree in fire science from the College of Southern Nevada. He went on to earn his Emergency Medical Technician license through American Medical Response in Las Vegas as well.

He said the urge to become a firefighter came to him upon graduating from high school, while noting he has family and friends in the profession, but it wasn't his first career choice.

"I went to school for civil engineering and that was kind of like my directed path," he said. "I had planned on working in the construction industry designing roadways and such. I got into Emergency Medical Services and fire after seeing what it was like. Once you do that first ride-along, you just get hooked. I thought that's where I wanted to be and ever since, I couldn't do any other job."

While in Las Vegas, Clickner worked only as an EMT. He said he gained his experience as a firefighter after arriving in Pahrump back in 2007.

Clickner noted the distinct differences of firefighters who work in large cities versus a rural community.

"You are more active to most of the calls out here and you see almost every good call and every bad call," he said. "A big city is totally different because you just have to be in the right area at the right time to respond to a call. Out here, we are the only game in town because our backup is quite a ways away. Of course we have Nye County Station 51, which is right up the hill from here."

Clickner also said the training fire crews receive is different from that in Las Vegas.

"We are cross-trained to do both out here as far as firefighting and EMT," he said. "Out here, basically everyone is a firefighter."

Like many other careers, firefighters and EMT's routinely face challenges involving life and death.

Clickner said one's mental stability and physical abilities are crucial.

"There's a lot of mental aspects to it and sometimes when you get physically tired you can start making the wrong calls and decisions," he said. "You have to counterbalance everything with each other. Our work depends on other people's bad day so there's a lot of that to take on as well. You are not dealing with just the patient, you're dealing with family afterwards."

Additionally, Clickner said there are measures in place for firefighters, which can help ease the mind in the event of a tragic call for service.

He stressed communication is the key.

"We do a very good debriefing here after major calls," he said. "Whether it's outside when loading the truck, or even in the kitchen. Everybody just starts talking about it. We also have a Critical Incident Stress debriefing where the chief is on the team and lieutenants can take that on also. If anybody wants to talk privately, you can go talk to them and help get through anything that's bothering you. It's therapeutic just to talk about it."

On the issue of advice for young would-be firefighters, Clickner said education is very important.

"They offer classes at the College of Southern Nevada, and we also do academies out here," he said. "Nye County puts on academies to do your Fire-1 classification. Being a volunteer out here is also very valuable without actually being on the job. Once they are trained to a certain level, then we take them. Once they get their Fire-1 and EMT license we take them in as one of us and we can get them on a rig. They can see what it is really all about before they actually do it."

Pahrump Valley Fire and Rescue Services also has a program for those under the age of 18.

"We have a cadet program out here and they get to be around us and they can ride on the engines and see what we do and how we respond," he said. "Once they turn 18, they can become a volunteer and start doing the training. Most of the training you can actually do before you are 18, so long as you're 18 by the end of it, you can get the certifications and gather the experience from that."

For more information on becoming a career firefighter, volunteer or cadet, call (775) 727-5658.

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com