After six months of training on nights and weekends, four Rochester Department members are officially firefighters.

The new firefighters graduated from the Massachusetts Firefighter Academy’s “Call/Volunteer Firefighter Training” program at a ceremony this June in Fall River. Training included 240 hours of instruction from everything on roaring fires to search and rescue missions.

“It was difficult, but rewarding. Very rewarding,” Chris Brasells said.

Fellow graduate Jimmy Gonneville agreed. “All of us really have a passion for this work.”

Gonneville and Brasells, both of Acushnet, joined Rochester residents Cam Alves and Mark Lawrence during training. The four had already been members of the on-call department as emergency response technicians.

Alves completed EMT training in high school and has been with the department for four years. Alves is the first in his family to be a firefighter. Lawrence said he was drawn to the field through his father Glenn, a department member.

All of the recruits said they plan to pursue careers as full-time firefighters.

To earn certification, the four attended a variety of classes. Training on hazardous materials, rappelling, fire response, and physical training took place and also included battling live fires in a controlled environment.