OC Bomberos<\/a>, after the Spanish word for firefighters, and have provided more than 40 scholarships to help community members afford college fire academy courses and paramedic or EMT training. The value of the scholarship has varied each year, but in 2025 nine candidates were awarded $1,000 scholarships.<\/p>\nRecipients can put the scholarship money towards whatever they need while they\u2019re in these full-time programs, Robles said, whether that\u2019s tuition, rent, books or other necessities.<\/p>\n
Paramedic school programs can total as much as $13,000, EMT school is around $2,500 and a basic college fire academy can cost about $6,000, said Robles, a fire apparatus engineer.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see how someone who wants to be a firefighter, who has the desire to be a firefighter, but has financial obligations at home,\u201d Robles said, \u201cmight not have the opportunity to pursue their dream career because of the financial burden.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robles was five or six years old when he marveled at the fire engines and the courage of the new recruits at his uncle\u2019s fire academy graduation as they showed off their skills by running a drill to extinguish a car fire. He also remembers his mom\u2019s face, wondering how she would afford a uniform that cost several hundred dollars, so that he could join the Los Angeles County Fire Department\u2019s explorer program for young people interested in fire service.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe wrote the check and figured it out later, and I still don\u2019t know how she paid for it,\u201d Robles said. \u201cShe didn\u2019t put that burden on me, she just handled it, but I knew how difficult it was and I was very appreciative.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2022, several hundred people attended the OC Bomberos\u2019 inaugural cornhole tournament to raise money for scholarships. From there, OC Bomberos continued to grow, becoming a nonprofit, bringing on two other Orange County firefighters to help run the operation alongside their full-time jobs and raising $15,000 at the 2025 cornhole tournament.<\/p>\n
Scholarship recipients have gone on to work for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, Cal Fire, Faulk Ambulance, the Los Angeles City Fire Department and the U.S. Forest Service.<\/p>\n
In 2025, Kekoa Lau became the first scholarship recipient to be hired as a firefighter with the OCFA. Until then, Robles and Flores imagined what it would be like when the program grew to the point that someone they mentored would eventually work alongside them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really cool to see that full circle,\u201d Robles said, \u201cof them interested in the fire service but not sure how to get involved to now riding on the fire engine with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The scholarship helped Lau attend the Rio Hondo College Fire Academy while handling outside expenses. Students attend the fire academy Monday through Friday from about 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., so Lau had to leave his full-time job as an ambulance officer, he said.<\/p>\n
Before moving to Southern California, Lau juggled jobs in construction, restaurants and a local pharmacy in Hawaii while taking his sister to and from preschool. He didn\u2019t see himself moving forward in any of those paths, but a mentor helped him realize that he needed to find his passion. A family friend who is a firefighter advised him to become an EMT and work in an ambulance to gain experience before joining the fire service.<\/p>\n
He moved in with his mom in Southern California, started an EMT program and became an ambulance officer, which helped him meet firefighters in Orange County and get connected with the OC Bomberos. The scholarship he was awarded helped him attend the Rio Hondo College Fire Academy at least a semester earlier than he would\u2019ve been able to afford otherwise, he said.<\/p>\n
As the fire academy finished up, the OC Bomberos were there to help Lau navigate the hiring process. They held mock panel interviews to prepare Lau and other future firefighters to present themselves, their qualifications and their passion for fire service in 30 minutes. Lau took their feedback and recorded his interviews to work on his responses and cut out filler words.<\/p>\n
The program goes beyond scholarships, matching teens and young adults with mentors and providing them with more information on opportunities like the OCFA fire cadet program, where they can learn more about careers in fire service. Once members are old enough to apply for academies and jobs, the OC Bomberos help them with test prep and scheduling ride-alongs and meetings with local departments.<\/p>\n
Since Lau joined OCFA, the OC Bomberos continue to reach out. They\u2019ve encouraged him to talk with them if he needs help or advice, and checked in on him as he starts his firefighting career.<\/p>\n
When Lau learned he\u2019d been accepted into OCFA\u2019s fire academy, he broke down and called his family friend, his mom and all of his mentors in OC Bomberos to share the news. It was serendipitous, he said, to learn he\u2019d be joining the fire authority whose members inspired him and helped him become a firefighter in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone grows up wanting to be a superhero and having that superhero they wish they were,\u201d Lau said. \u201cWhen you get told that the Avengers are recruiting you and those are your superheroes, \u2026 it was a feeling unlike any other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since he\u2019s been on the job, Lau said he feels trust from community members and sees their relief when firefighters arrive at a scene. It inspires him to build on the work of firefighters who came before him and continue to serve the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what our job is,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to bring peace to the chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once he finishes his first year, Lau said he hopes to get involved with OC Bomberos and help more people find their passion in firefighting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While working together at an Orange County Fire Authority station in Buena Park, Andrew Robles and Gabriel Flores…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,2702,138,3802,2306,100,611,48419,1492,136],"class_list":["post-120355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-charity","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-fire","tag-higher-education","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orange-county-fire-authority-ocfa","tag-public-safety","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}