There is a different philosophy applied to the old saying, "Where there is smoke — there is fire" at Frazier Mountain High School. It is not an uncommon sight to see students dressed in U.S. Forest Service yellow and green firefighting gear aiming water hoses at areas not on fire. They are students in the Kern County Regional Occupational Program (KCROP) Fire Science class, learning to fight fires without fires at the almost 4,000-foot-level-campus in mountainous southern Kern County. Fire Science is one of the dozens of vocational skills offered to high school students enrolled in KCROP programs operated by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools. It is a particularly practical one, since the students who attend Frazier Mountain High are in an area that is susceptible to forest fires in the dry days of summer, and the forest service needs new recruits to meet the demands of the season which runs May through October. "It is an entry level course aimed at training the students to be certified as entry level firefighters at the end of the program. If they are at least 18 years of age, they can apply for voluntary firefighting positions," said U.S. Forest Service Captain Ryan Bridger, advisor to KCROP in charge of overseeing the Fire Science class. "It would be very difficult to recruit for the summer firefighting season, were it not for the program. We would have to go to campuses and recruit and then try to quickly train new recruits during the busiest part of the season. This way, the Fire Science students are ready to come on board when the season starts." More