Hoard graduates Fire Academy

Justin Hoard was working at a fast-food restaurant about a year ago when some Gluckstadt firefighters came in for lunch.

“They were nice and looked cool,” Hoard said. “They looked like a unit.”

He said he asked them if they were hiring.

“They said ‘yeah’ and brought me an application,” Hoard said. “I was hired two weeks later.”

Hoard says after 11 months at the Glcukstadt Fire Department he made the right decision.

“I love this job,” he said. “Everyone here is amazing. I’ve got a lot to learn from these guys.”

Hoard graduated from the Mississippi State Fire Academy’s basic firefighter class on April 11.

The GFD got a call in the middle of a reporter’s conversation with the new recruit. 

“I have to go,” Hoard said simply in the middle of a sentence about how he enjoyed his hours because it meant he got to spend more time with his family.

Hoard had said he likes going on calls because a firefighter encounters people during rough situations, often the worst day of their lives, and “You give them hope.”

Hoard is from Jackson where he lives with his wife of about four months, Al’Niah Graham.