Imagine navigating your way through a caged, three-floor maze with hatches and just enough space to crawl through with firefighting garb on you – all in pitch darkness. It’s no wonder they call it “The Confidence Builder.”

For six new additions to the Onset Fire Department, the experience was one they’ve never been through before.

Massachusetts Maritime Academy students Justice Andrade, Nicholas Forsynthe, Marc Granto, Ryan Quinn, Conor Shults and Brian Watson have recently been added to the Onset Fire Department as on-call firefighters. They will now be able to respond to emergencies without restrictions as Onset recruit firefighters as part of a new internship program.

“We’re working with the school,” said Onset Fire Chief Ray Goodwin. “The school’s been very supportive of us.”

In addition to gaining firefighting experience, the recruits will receive six college credits. Having had a successful pilot of the college recruit program, Onset and Bourne Fire Department officials hope to continue it, and they are looking for more interns.

On Thursday evening, the recruits did a training exercise in a portable training unit. Called “The Confidence Builder,” it was on loan from the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy.

“You could get lost in there. It’s all part of the firefighting training,” said Bob Haskell of the Department of Fire Services.

The portable training unit travels all over the state, Haskell said, from Williamstown to Provincetown. It was brought in for Bourne firefighters and remained in that town for one extra day for Onset firefighter training. In addition to the maze, the unit included a separate section of tangled wires that firefighters navigated while blindfolded.

Haskell was able to see what the trainees did through the maze at all times with infrared cameras. If any issues arose, Haskell had the ability to communicate with the trainees.

First up was Shults, who accidentally went back to the door he entered, thinking he had completed the maze.

“You turned right around and came right out where you started,” Haskell told him. “So go back in and keep on going. Remember where you’ve been.”

Haskell said it’s difficult for firefighters to remember where they’ve been if they don’t feel up, over and in front of them. He advised Schults to keep at least one hand on the wall at all times.

“It’s a very different experience,” said Schults after completing the maze. He said he reminded himself to “stay calm” and “keep going.”