OLDS — A program that the Olds Fire Department hopes will result in more recruits is off to a promising start.
The Olds Fire Department cadet program was developed this past September. Classes and meetings for the program’s first six high school students began once a week in mid October. It will finish in late May.
Fire training officer Jason Fleming says he and his wife saw a chance to start the program up here. She had been a fire cadet in Calgary in the early 2000s and he had helped train Calgary fire cadets.
Momentum to start the program here picked up when Fleming joined the Olds department a little over a year ago.
Cadets learn general fire-fighting skills, including how to operate tools and equipment as well as tie necessary knots.
They’ve also had a chance to find out what it’s like to wear and utilize the 70-pound SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus).
Training really picks up in the spring.
“We’ll introduce them to some live fire training, like the flash-over chamber where we’ll show them a bit of fire science, fire behaviour as well. It’s all controlled, safe,” Fleming said during an interview.
“Towards the middle of May we’ll do a bit of vehicle extrication with them.”
Later on, they’ll learn how to “tag hydrants during a fire – how to catch a hydrant off the back of a firetruck. Hooking up the five-inch to the fire hydrant,” he added.
The cadets also have to volunteer in the community.
So far, that volunteerism has included helping to set up the Christmas Village, assisting with the fire department’s boot drive fundraiser and delivering Christmas food hampers.
Cadets pay a $100 fee per level to join, which covers purchase of a textbook and a registration fee for online exams.
And there are all sorts of tests.
"They do small quizzes. So every two weeks we’ll do a different chapter, part of the curriculum for the firefighting aspect of the cadet program," Fleming said.
In the run-up to Christmas, they did tests on ropes and firefighting equipment.
Riston Gibson and Trinity Praill are two of the cadets.
“I heard about it through my school. It sounded pretty interesting, so I went to the meeting and then I joined,” Gibson said.
He said he’s wanted to be a firefighter since he was a little kid.
“I was always interested in that,” he said.
He’s the first in his family to get into firefighting.
"We’ve learned quite a bit. Lots about ropes, lots about safety equipment. Everything you’d use for fire and emergency,” Gibson said.
So far, he said, nothing the program has thrown at him has changed that plan. That includes wearing and moving around with the SCBA on his back.
Praill also heard about the program via the high school so she attended a meeting about it after school hours.
“I’ve always thought that being an RCMP officer would be a pretty decent job and so I thought that being a fire cadet would really set the path for it,” she said.
“As I’ve learnt more about it, because they brought in an RCMP officer for a meeting, it’s become more and more intriguing to me.”
Praill was asked if she’d rather be a police officer or a firefighter.
“I don’t know yet,” she said. “Maybe a little bit of both, because there’s always time. But I really like the canine unit options of RCMP.”
She has a dog at home.
Praill said wearing the SCBA was a bit of a challenge.
"It’s pretty tough because it doesn’t always sit on my hips very well, but it works,” she said.
She said overall, it wasn’t a big issue for her because she does wrestling and rugby.
Several groups have been approached to sponsor the program. Among them is the Kiwanis Club of Olds.
Before Christmas, Betty Baril, the club’s president, presented Fleming with a $5,000 cheque to help cover the program’s costs.
“I think this is a very beneficial program for all the high school students, so we’re happy to do this, for sure,” Baril said.
The money for the cheque was obtained via a number of fundraisers the club holds, including its annual auction, wine survivor contest and staffing food concessions, she said.
“Considering what kind of a year we’ve had, we’re happy to be able to give this amount to them, for sure,” she said.
