SUBLETTE – Fires, mangled vehicles, medical emergencies. For the people caught up in their chaos and confusion, they’re like a jumbled puzzle, and first responders are called upon to sort through the pieces and the panic and help put a person’s life back together.

They’re puzzles inside the moment. Not the kind solved with time and quiet, but ones that demand decisions in seconds — how to get in, how to get out, how to reach someone who needs help — and first responders need to be prepared to make those decisions.

In Sublette, people who could be the firefighters of tomorrow are learning to be prepared today — and they’re getting an early start.

The Sublette Fire Department’s Explorers cadet program, a regional initiative aimed at strengthening volunteer firefighting and emergency medical services, recently concluded its second year, building on an early success and growing interest among local teens.

The program launched in January 2025 to address ongoing staffing shortages, particularly as longtime volunteers retire and fewer new recruits step forward. Designed for participants ages 15 to 19, the program provides a pathway for young people to gain hands-on experience while exploring potential careers in emergency services. It graduated its second group of cadets March 22 in a ceremony at the fire department, following an 8-week session, with five hours each week, that started Jan. 18.

Assistant fire chief Nick Dinges coordinates the program, with help from chief Kevin Schultz and the rest of the department. The program also receives assistance from others nearby, such as the Byron and Dixon Rural departments, as well as individuals from departments in Aurora, Dixon, Mendota, Oregon, Rockford and Rock Island. In all, 24 instructors guided this year’s training.

The program is growing, having expanded from 18 cadets in its inaugural class to 29 this year, drawing participants from Sublette, Franklin Grove and surrounding communities, as well as others from as far as an hour away.

For Dinges, the program is about more than just training, it’s about sparking an interest in the field of fire and rescue.

“In my mind, this eight weeks, if they want to stay in the fire service, this was a dress rehearsal,” Dinges said. “You’re now out in front of people, people know your name, they see who you are, they represent us, and more importantly if they want to get into a career in fire service, they now have a pathway with the relationships developed here.”

The training emphasizes active, practical learning that cadets typically would not get in a classroom environment. Cadets rotate through different departments and engage in real-world exercises such as hose deployment, ceiling pulls, tool hoisting and navigating confined spaces in full gear. They demonstrate their skills by breaking through walls, practicing rescue techniques and working in simulated emergency conditions under the guidance of experienced firefighters from across the region.

Cadets begin with the basics — though, as instructors stressed, there is nothing “basic” about them. From the start, they are taught to treat their personal protective equipment as a lifeline, drilling with it until every motion becomes muscle memory. Even simple tasks can be a challenge: Picking up tools while wearing fire gloves, Schultz told cadets, is like “doing brain surgery with oven mitts.” They learn to trust their gear, but also to understand its limits — and the behavior of fire itself. During flashover training, instructors noted the same reaction each time: eyes widening as cadets witnessed just how quickly conditions can turn. They practice forcing entry into spaces designed to keep people out, work side by side in tight conditions where communication matters, and handle the heavy, unforgiving weight of extrication tools.

It’s a program that’s become increasingly important. In the last four decades, the number of volunteer firefighters nationwide has steadily declined – from roughly 900,000 to 700,000 — and that places additional strain on rural departments, especially in smaller communities like Sublette.

The impact is especially visible locally, where increasing call volumes and physically demanding patient care have created challenges for older, veteran personnel. Younger cadets can help fill that gap by assisting with tasks such as lifting patients, operating equipment and supporting crews on calls, all under supervision.

While the number of volunteers has gone down, call volume has gone up. In Sublette it’s risen from about 100 annually in 1997 to around 250 today, Dinges said. In addition, the time commitment for each of their calls averages more than two hours, due in part to more required reports to fill out in recent years.

Dinges said most volunteers are either unpaid, or paid on call at a very low rate, so “having these people step up and help not just us, but these other communities is a big, big deal. We really appreciate that. They are choosing to do it when there are a lot of jobs out there.”

On one of the training days, the noise amid a maze of hoses, walls and low-hanging obstacles was reduced to breath and instinct. For Nick’s son Jake Dinges, 17, of Sublette, it was a test of having trust in a partner, in the training and in himself.

“You’re sometimes partnered with someone you’re not necessarily close with, but you two have to figure out how to get out of there,” Jake said. “You can’t just quit in there. You just got to keep going and push through.”

His family helped shape his interest in firefighting.

“Growing up, I’d always come down and sit at the department, whether it was helping with the radio or washing trucks,” he said. “As I got older, I wanted to be more involved, not just to see the station side but also see actual calls.”

Now enrolled in an EMT program, Dinges sees the cadet experience as something that offers not only training, but perspective.

“You realize how little some of your problems are on the day-to-day, and a couple of times a week you’re seeing someone’s worst day, you look at your problems, and it’s like, ‘I can get through that,’” he said. “If people can get through heart attacks, burning buildings, and some of these issues, shoot, I can get through that math test that I have.”

Jack Delhotal, 17, of Franklin Grove also comes from a firefighting family. Inspired by his father, he joined the cadet program to make a difference in his own community.

“My dad got into it a few years ago, and I would see how he was helping and making a difference,” Delhotal said. “I wanted to be a part of that.”

For Delhotal, one of the biggest challenges has been mastering the physical and mental demands of the job — from properly using protective gear to staying focused in high-stress situations.

“When you get in a building, it’s burning, you can’t see anything, it’s hot, and maybe your hose is tangled up, you really just got to keep pushing,” he said.

But like Dinges, he points to teamwork as the most important lesson.

“It’s you and your partner in a building, and you really got to lean on each other,” Delhotal said.

The importance of that bond is something Collin O’Malley, 17, of Sublette, didn’t expect when he first signed up.

“It’ll be fun,” O’Malley recalled Jake texting him to join the program. He did — but quickly found it was about far more than just fun.

“I learned a lot about friendship and leadership,” said O’Malley, who now plans to pursue firefighting as a career. “We’re all good friends around here now, and seeing everyone making a difference is very impactful.”

O’Malley also pointed to a phrase emphasized throughout training: “Duty, pride, respect,” a lesson he took seriously.

“The duty is to serve your community. You’ve got to have pride in what you do, and the respect aspect is so big,” O’Malley said. “When you go on a call, that’s someone’s worst day.”

As their certificates were handed out at the graduation ceremony, Schultz reminded cadets that what they had earned went far deeper than a piece of paper: It was also the trust they earned from the veterans in the department.

“The way you’ve carried yourselves, from uncertainty to confidence, over the last several months — you’ve not only been learning about firefighting, but you’ve been forged by it,” Schultz told the cadets. “You’ve moved from being observers to practitioners of the trade, a trade that takes years and decades to learn, but you’ve made the most important step: the first one. That’s something to be very proud of.”

Dinges also reminded the cadets about an important lesson they should take from each and every call: Pay attention not only to your environment, whether it’s an open window or closed door, but to the people in it, whether it’s a fellow firefighter or the person who called them.

“These are things that we can look at and quiz each other every day,” Dinges said. “They matter to the person that called 911. We can make ourselves better every time we’re out, even on a medical call or lift assist, whatever it takes to make ourselves better when we learn one thing on every call.”

They’re lessons that even veteran first responders must remember.

“I truly believe that in this job, and in this life, whether you’re doing fire work on ground or in the back of an ambulance, no matter how good you know your job, you can and will be humble,” Dinges said. “You’ve got to always be sharp and be willing to train. For us to be able to train again, that gives us the opportunity to learn as well, and we’re gaining from them as much as they are learning from us.”

With the need for volunteers continuing, Sublette’s fire department leaders hope to continue attracting motivated young people to ensure the long-term sustainability of essential emergency services in the region.

For the younger Dinges, a shared energy across generations is what makes the experience meaningful.

“You start running calls and seeing people’s lives being changed,” Jake said. “They’re really important moments, and you can be a part of that.”

Find Sublette Fire Department on Facebook or call 815-849-5512 to learn more about the department’s Explorers cadet program. The department is located at 201 N. Richmond St. in Sublette, and provides fire and EMT services to Sublette, Ohio, West Brooklyn and Woodhaven Lakes.