Fire Safety experts arrived in Ahousaht May 11 to spend two days working with senior Maaqtusiis Secondary students and interested community members on home fire safety and firefighting training.
The Fire Prevention Boot Camp, spearheaded by First Nations Emergency Services Society (FNESS), with support from Kidde Canada and the Ahousaht Volunteer Fire Department, took aim at younger people with the goal of training them to teach fire safety skills to other people.
The Fire Prevention Boot Camps are designed for people between the ages of 14 and 29. The local volunteer fire department is invited to join in the training in order to integrate their knowledge into the program and to motivate people to join the department.
Bonnie Hayes is one of Ahousaht’s veteran volunteer fire fighters, having been involved with the service for more than 12 years. She took part in the training and assisted with the use of Ahousaht’s fire equipment.
According to Luke Swan Jr. and Mike George, the Ahousaht Volunteer Fire Department has nine volunteers, but only four are fully committed. With Ahousaht’s population at about the 1,000 mark, Swan says the experts say they should have at least 20 committed fire fighters based on community size. They were hoping the Boot Camp will bring more volunteers to the AVFD.
About 15 people from Ahousaht took part the first day of boot camp, which involved classroom training along with hands-on training in fire suppression. The training also included fire extinguisher training and mini home safety inspections that the school children would learn.
Ahousaht’s own Curtis Dick, former AVFD chief and now with FNESS, was there to guide the exercises.
With fire protection gear borrowed from Surrey Fire Department, all of the trainees learned how to work the hoses on the Ahousaht fire truck and they competed in some fire hose races to help develop their skills.
Liz Wilson, from FNESS, said they were there to teach people about fire safety, prevention and also get them interested in career opportunities in firefighting. They also wanted to leave safety information with the students that they could present to other community members, passing the information on.
When the first day of training was complete, the students would become the teachers. On May 12 they taught the younger children in the school the fire safety and prevention knowledge they had learned. A community dinner was then held where the trainees presented fire safety knowledge to the community.
The Fire Prevention Boot Camp in Ahousaht was the third one FNESS was involved in. Events were held at Seabird Island and in Victoria as part of the Gathering Our Voices event. FNESS will be bringing their Boot Camps to other first nations in the province.
FNESS is a society that had its beginnings in the 1980s with a group of concerned first nations people working to reduce the number of fire-related deaths in aboriginal communities. It has since grown to include more emergency services and is respected Canada-wide.
Kidde Canada is a leading manufacturer and supplier of smoke alarms in Canada. First Nations can visit their website to apply for smoke alarms.
Patrick Folliott was in Ahousaht to provide information about the importance of having working smoke alarms in the home and to give away free smoke alarms from Kidde Canada.
He delivered valuable information about the latest technology in smoke and carbon monoxide detectors as well as information about the best placement of smoke detectors in the home. His main message to the children was smoke alarms save lives.
Myles Anderson, a volunteer from the Fire Prevention Officers Association of British Columbia, was in Ahousaht to share his expertise. He said the value of programs like this one is priceless because it’s not just about resource people bringing information to the community but also about educating the young ones so that they can take it to the community.
“And to see them in their fire gear is so rewarding,” he said, adding that it was clear that the young Ahousaht people were proud to wear the gear.
Liz Wilson said programs such as this one bring safety benefits not only to the home but also to the whole community.
Each of the trainees received FNESS t-shirts, note pads and pens and free home smoke alarms from Kidde Canada.
