Since 2025, the Monterey Fire Department has required all interior firefighters to pass the PAT. The test isn’t about speed; it’s about the ability to work hard, stay calm and keep moving while breathing from a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA).

Last October, just as the weather turned from hot to cool and crisp, the Monterey Fire Department responded to a reported chimney fire. Upon arrival, crews found that the fire had spread from the chimney to the roof. Firefighters quickly contained the flames…

At five years old, Lisa Wren would pull on her grandmother’s oversized snow boots, slip into a plastic firefighter costume and spend afternoons in the backyard spraying a garden hose at cardboard boxes she imagined were burning houses. Around the same time…