After more than 200 hours of training in everything from hazardous materials to blazing fires, six Marion Fire Department recruits are officially firefighters.

"Work hard, work harder, work hardest," Fire Chief Tom Joyce told the group at a joint graduation ceremony with the Onset Fire Department on Friday, June 28, "because someone's life may depend on it."

Marion teamed with Onset Fire for the months-long course, which prepared the firefighters for every situation they might encounter. The firefighters are now part of the department's on-call staff and will take state certification exams.

Onset Fire Captain Raymond Goodwin, who led the joint training effort, had a salient piece of advice for the new firefighters: "You have to be one unit, one Fire Department, one company. You did that," he said, but noted: "You stop training the day you retire."