Nova Scotia's tight-knit firefighting community is praying for the recovery of a young firefighter from Truro, who suffered serious injuries during a training exercise in the Halifax area over the weekend.

Details are scarce, but the labour department is investigating.

Sadness was hanging over the Nova Scotia Firefighters School in Waverley, N.S., on Monday.

For more than 50 years, the venerable academy has trained the men and women Nova Scotians depend on during the worst times of their lives.

This weekend, the bad times came to the school itself.

“It's under investigation between ourselves and the department of labour,” said John Cunningham, the school’s executive director. “We're hoping for a speedy and full recovery for the individual.”

The area where the incident occurred remains cordoned off with police tape.

Sources tell CTV News the victim -- a career firefighter in his late 20s -- wasn't burned in the incident, but rather injured while using a piece of equipment.

He works for the Truro Fire Service and is reportedly in critical condition.

Halifax fire crews were among the first responders to the scene when the call came-in as an “industrial accident.”

“It hits home because, there's a saying, ‘for the grace of God, it could be me,’” said Halifax Deputy Fire Chief Roy Hollett. “And they realize, we all realize, that training, going to calls - what we do, there is a risk to it.”

Experts say injuries are fairly common during rough-and-tumble training, but they're usually limited to things like pulled muscles' and twisted ankles.

This was much more serious.

The labour department will only say its investigation is ongoing.

And, as the school searches for answers itself, their thoughts are firmly with the young man in a Halifax hospital.

“It's very hard,” Cunningham said. “We'd hope that this would never happen, but unfortunately, we'll deal with this as best we can.”

For an institution that's trained generations of firefighters for the worst of times, that's about all that can be expected.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Bruce Frisko.