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Tyler S. VanCamp says that his father always went into work happy as a city firefighter and always returned home in that same kind of mood.

Mr. VanCamp, 27, thought that the job of serving the public was something that he, too, would enjoy.

On Friday morning, he and six other young firefighters began their firefighter careers after completing their 13 weeks of fire recruit training.

His father, Scott M. VanCamp, a veteran of the Watertown Fire Department for 17 years, inspired him to become a firefighter.

“I saw how he cared about being a firefighter, how much he cared to serve and maybe I can be as good of a firefighter as him,” he said.

“Maybe even better.”

The elder VanCamp remembered the day that he learned that he was taking the civil service exam to become a firefighter.

“I was blatting,” he said, describing the tears of joy he had that day in 2019.

Five recruits from Watertown and two from the Ogdensburg Fire Department went through more than four months of grueling training through the city’s first academy in about a decade.

They were sworn into their new jobs during a ceremony at the Emma Flower Taylor Fire Station on South Massey Street Friday morning. Family members placed coveted brass firefighter pins to their uniform lapels. Watertown Fire Chief Matthew R. Timerman decided that the fire department should hole the academy locally following the death of city recruit Peyton L.S. Morse at the New York State Academy of Fire Science in March 2021.

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