Who wouldn’t want to practice with a 911 simulator, crawl through a “smoke machine” filled with theatrical smoke, try on firefighters’ “bunker gear” or get to spray a fire hose?
It doesn’t seem fair that the experience is limited to children.
If only I were a wee bit younger. Say between 8 and 12 years of age. Then, you can be sure, I would be quick to sign up for one of Littleton Fire Rescue’s two Mini-Fire Academy sessions (June 26-29 and July 17-20; call 303-795-3833; $10 charge).
Like many metro area fire departments, Littleton Fire Rescue works year around to teach kids about fire, bike and car safety. In addition, for the sixth year, it is offering the Mini-Fire Academy to give kids an insider’s view of what life as a firefighter is really like.
Katie Moore, life-safety educator for Littleton Fire Rescue, says the academy reaches 50 children each summer. Kids learn to “tie the ropes and knots that firefighters have to know,” she says. They learn basic fire safety and first aid, tour a fire station, engage in a “bike rodeo” and practice a bucket brigade. On the last day, they engage in a “mini combat challenge” that is similar to the annual physical test that firefighters have to pass. “They work in teams, trying to spray a target with a fire hose. Of course, it’s a smaller hose than the firefighters use.”
The Longmont Fire Department takes a different approach to child safety, using a very special dog to reach second-, fifth- and sixth-grade students. Called “Shadow’s Nose Knows,” the 30-minute program features a yellow Labrador retriever that is certified as an arson-detection canine. Firefighter Mike Manzo, Shadow’s owner and handler, attends the programs with Safety Education Coordinator Stephanie Blanch.
Blanch says the program arose from the fire department’s desire to reduce the number of fires set by juveniles in the city. Children are shown poster-size photos of a fire that destroyed a Longmont home when two young brothers found and played with a lighter. The message, besides not to play with matches or lighters, is to ask an adult to keep such potentially dangerous items out of reach.
With car accidents the leading cause of death of children between the ages of 2 and 14 nationally, Blanch and Manzo also saw the importance of teaching seat belt safety. Their program shows children what happens when teddy bears don’t wear seat belts while riding in bear-sized “crash cars.”
But the program’s most powerful message, Blanch says, comes from Shadow, a friendly 5-year-old dog that has assisted in the investigation of arson fires in which 23 arrests have been made. Shadow amazes the children by demonstrating how he locates an accelerant in burned materials, Blanc says, then wins their hearts when they learn that he is part of a litter of puppies abandoned in Florida. Sadly, four of the puppies died, but Shadow and a litter-mate (also an arson-detecting canine) survived. The children are educated about the need to be kind to animals and take care of their pets’ safety as well as their own.
“The feedback from teachers is that the kids can’t stop talking about Shadow,” Blanch says. “The children say, ‘Shadow wants us to wear our seat belts, so we will. Shadow doesn’t want us to play with matches and lighters, so we won’t.”‘
Best of all, juvenile-set fires have declined in Longmont. In 1994, juveniles started 25 percent of all fires in the city. Last year, children started fewer than 1 percent of them.
The Longmont program reached 1,000 schoolchildren in 16 Longmont schools during 2005, and another 1,000 students in 2006. Blanch and Manzo plan to add additional schools in 2007, so the numbers will continue to grow. Meanwhile, this summer you can take the kids out to meet Shadow and Manzo on July 8 at Longmont’s Rhythm on the River celebration.
