Course teaches students fire safety

Course teaches students fire safety
By Ryan Hutton, North Adams Transcript
Article Launched: 10/18/2008 03:05:06 AM EDT



Saturday, October 18
CHESHIRE -- A darkened, smoke-filled corridor to navigate, a rocking, debris filled tunnel to shimmy through, a 165-pound body to haul and a baby to catch from a 20-foot drop -- these were just a few of the things students at Hoosac Valley High School had to deal with this week as the Cheshire Volunteer Fire Department set up their simulated fire training obstacle course.
The course is part of the community outreach and recruitment program funded by the $665,962 Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Staffing for Adequate Fire Safety & Emergency Response (SAFER) grant the town received in December 2006.

"The whole point of everything here was trying to spark interest in the youth," said fire fighter and EMT Corey McGrath. "We've had a great response and we've signed up a few junior fire fighters. We started our junior fire department last year and we've gotten some more kids interest. We're just trying to start a live forum. At the end of the class, I open it up for questions and we can talk with them."

Starting on Wednesday and ending Friday, the students took their gym class to go through an obstacle course that simulated a number of the different situations that fire fighters can encounter -- with the option of doing it in full turnout gear and oxygen tank. In teams of two, the first stop was hauling a coiled fire hose to the roof of the gym with a rope. Next was a closed off



trailer filled with harmless fog that simulated the lack of visibility in a smoke-filled building. After that, they had to drag a uncoiled fire hose 50 feet to a fire truck and use a connected hose to shoot a bucket on a line, always advancing to make sure it got to the top of the baseball field's backstop.
Next, they had to form a two-person bucket brigade to put out wooden flames on a fake house front and then it was target practice with water fire extinguishers. Then there was the tunnel crawl where they had to navigate a narrow plastic tunnel filled with cardboard and old clothing to get to the 165-pound "Rescue Randy" doll and drag the dead weight another 50 feet. At the end, they had to safely catch a weighted baby doll and raise an American flag to the gym roof. All the while making sure you didn't leave your partner behind.

"It was exhilarating," said 18-year-old Jason Duval said as he stripped off the Nomex/Kevlar turnout jacket. "I've never done this before, so I thought it was pretty cool. The stuff's pretty heavy though. It gets hot in there and it's hard to breathe when you first get the hit of that bottled air."

His partner on the course was 17-year-old Justin Clairmont. Justin said he had run the course last year during the event, but added that the smoked-filled trailer gave him trouble he wasn't expecting.

"Oh man, you can't see anything in there," he said panting after completing the course. "You're crawling on your hands and knees and you can barely see your hands."

Jared Gale, 17, took the opportunity to douse his partner with water at both the bucket brigade and the fire extinguisher stops but said seriously that the course was an eye-opener to what is to be a fire fighter.

"It was definitely a different experience," he said. "It's good to know what they go through every time they get a call. This wasn't even all of it and it's tough."

McGrath said the point of the course was two-fold -- it gives the students a taste of what being a fire fighter is like and it works as a fire safety refresher.

"At the same time we're working on fire prevention," He said. "Crawling low through smoke, using a fire extinguisher, stuff they may not remember form elementary school and it's been a huge success. Every year we get a little better at it and the program gets a little bit bigger. Other than that, it's just fun.

"It's definitely an eye opener and we try to use that. In my speech to the kids before we start, I tell them we're all fathers sitting at home and as much as we train, we don't want to fight a fire. We're prepared to do it, we're willing to go out and do whatever we have to, but it all starts with prevention. If we don't have to go fight a fire because it never starts, it's better that way."

So far, the department has recruited three new members for it's junior fire fighter program and had certified 16 students in its first responder classes, with another 20 signed up to take the next course. McGrath said the surprise of the week was seeing how the first-time students reacted to the program.

"They love the smoke trailer and wearing the gear," he said. "They really get excited about getting to wear the turnout gear. Especially the girls. The girls have been more receptive to this than the guys will ever be, I think. They're just ready to go, almost everyone of them. Now we just need to get them into the fire department when they're older -- either as a fire fighter or an EMT or both."

For Chelsea Tarsa, 17, and Jenna Laughlin, 17, going through the course just once wasn't enough, they came back later in the week to try it out with the turnout gear on.

"It was scary. It was really scary but it was fun," Tarsa said. "I did it earlier in the week without the gear on, definitely a lot easier than now. But I give fire fighters all the credit in the world. I could never be a fire fighter.

"Breathing was hard. With that mask on it was tough and you had, like, 20 pounds on your back and you're hauling all this weight when you're trying to do all these things that are hard normally."

McGrath said the next step is trying to establish an EMT program at the school and that the SAFER grant was going to be a huge help.

"It's working. We're getting kids," he said. "Our numbers are higher than they have been in a while. We've got about three or four kids that joined in the junior fire department and more want to join but they're not old enough yet, they're not quite 16."