Poland intern finds Yuma firefighters friendly

Agnieska "Mariola" Wojciechowska from Poland is following the footsteps of her father and brother in becoming a firefighter.

A student from Poland's Main School of Fire Service in Warsaw, she came came to Yuma for an internship offered by the Yuma Fire Department.

Coming from a long line of firefighters, she will be the first female in her family to be in the fire service. She is also the first female intern from Poland at YFD, according to Mike Erfert, Yuma Fire Department spokesman.

  Poland's Main School of Fire Service collaborates with fire departments across the United States to provide Polish students internships in U.S. fire departments. This is the fourth year that YFD has participated in the program. The program is for Polish students to gain knowledge of the latest firefighting skills in the U.S. and to gain exposure on how to respond to medical emergencies.

  Erfert said Mariola got lots of exposure shadowing the personnel who respond to emergency medical calls, which was fairly new for her because usually firefighters in Poland strictly respond to fires.

  "Coming here, 80 percent of our emergency calls for service is for emergency medical calls, so that's a whole different thing," Erfert said.

  Mariola said she choose to come to Yuma because the last intern from Poland highly recommended it to her.

  "I heard about this program and I thought this can be something to give me experience to go to the U.S. and to know how firefighters work here. I wanted to find the difference between Polish state fire service and fire service here," Mariola said. " I think there is a lot of difference but firefighters in the all of the world are the same, they are friendly, they are very nice and helpful."

  Mariola lived at Yuma Fire Station No. 3 at 508 E. 25th St. for the three weeks she interned. She will leave on Sunday to go back to Warsaw, Poland.

  Erfert said the students have to go through a competitive process back in Poland. "It's just not, 'I want to go to the United States.' They have to test for the opportunity to do that," Erfert said. "Along with that, they get to choose where they want to go, and she chose to come to Yuma. She knows some of those who have come here before and Yuma comes highly recommended."

  Mariola said she wanted to become a doctor but growing up she heard stories about her father and brother fighting fires and helping people and eventually became interested.

  "When you hear all your life about working in the fire service then you think it could not boring to be a firefighter," Mariola said.

  During her stay here, she was able to visit the Grand Canyon. She also said she was greatly impressed about Yuma's landscape. "All I can think is landscape. Here it's desert, mountains, Colorado River - all these things together make something amazing," Mariola said.

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Stephanie Sanchez can be reached at ssanchez@yumasun.com or 539-6847.