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A group of students at Onondaga Community College are redefining "college living." Instead of staying in dorms, or commuting from home, they're bunking up at the Moyers Corners fire stations, and as our Allison Lazarz tells us, these so-called "bunk-ins" are making a big difference for the fire department and the community.

CLAY, N.Y. -- Eight Onondaga Community College students are part of the Moyers Corners Bunk-in program.

Instead of living at home or in a college dorm, the students live right in the department's fire stations.

"They do many different details, they basically have a work list. Something as simple as basically chores in the fire house, making sure the fire houses are maintained, the apparatus is maintained, apparatus checks," said Moyers Corners Fire Department Deputy Chief Edward J. Stevens.

In addition to basic chores, the bunk-ins get the invaluable experience of going out on calls and working side by side with volunteers at the department.

"Every call is something new so there's always something to learn. The schooling gives us the knowledge while bunking in gives us the experience," said Trevor Goodenough, a second-year bunk-in.

While the bunk-ins get experience, the surrounding communities get the benefit of a volunteer department that can respond to calls quicker.

"If you've already got half the staffing, and you've got the first two people in the door here, we get our apparatus out of here on a regular basis between the 3-5 minute mark, it's a tremendous help and it obviously is a safety factor for the community," said Stevens.

Because the bunk-ins live right in the fire houses, their college experience is a little different than your typical college student who lives in a dorm room.

"We don't live the typical college life, we spend a lot of time running fire calls-- while kids are out hanging out with friends we're out riding fire trucks to all different types of alarms," said Goodenough.

To be in the program, students must maintain a minimum G.P.A of 2.5.

They must also live outside of Onondaga County and go through an interview process before being accepted to the bunk-in program.

There are other departments in Onondaga County that run similar programs.

To find out more about the Moyers Corner program or about the Fire Protection Technology program at OCC you can visit these Web sites:

Onondaga Community College Fire Protection Technology Program:

http://www.sunyocc.edu/program.aspx?title=2548&menu=170&type=6793&&id=6708