Fire Chief Scott Ellis supervised a group of 17 kids, aged 6 to 12 on Wednesday morning, July 30. One by one each kid joined the chief in the hot zone to use a fire extinguisher on a real propane flame in a safe environment.
12-year-old Jax said he had never used a fire extinguisher before.
“It’s crazy that powder puts out the fire and it’s cool to watch that because like, the powder just puts it out instantly,” he said.
Jax explains the four steps the campers learned using the acronym PASS.
“The ‘p’ is for pull the pin. The ‘a’ is for aim. The first ‘s’ is for squeeze and the second ‘s’ is for sweep it," he explained.
Jax put out the fire in under five seconds and took an interest in all aspects of the firefighting training. He said he wants to continue more training in the future, much to Captain Shelby Bacus’ glee.
Jax and the other campers also participated in a demonstration of how one of the tender trucks provides water for a bucket brigade, get familiar with the firefighting equipment on the fire engine trucks, as well as learn basic splinting and first aid.
Bacus with the Bayside Fire Department put together this new kids’ fire camp.
"My whole goal I think with Bayside and all of our fire departments here on the island is to get kids really excited about emergency services young and then to create programs that will hopefully allow them to have careers and either stay in Kodiak or come back to Kodiak for their careers," she said.
Bacus coordinated activities for each day of the camp, which included visits with Kodiak’s other emergency services like the police department, the Coast Guard Fire Department, as well as Alaska State Troopers and the City of Kodiak Fire Department, where Rich Gonzalez recently became the fire chief .
She also applied for a $14,000 grant from the Alaska Community Foundation to host the summer event, which helped keep the cost to families at about $100 per kid.
Other Bayside firefighters and high school cadets took turns assisting the kids’ camp. The cadet program is another one of the department’s recently launched recruitment programs.
Bacus said she has plans to further expand the department’s training and recruitment efforts.
“I want to see this program continue to grow, both with the fire camp, the cadet program and then even college based courses, and just our volunteer program here," she said.
And all the kids KMXT spoke to, like 6-year-old Newton, said they want to do the fire camp again next year.
“KMXT: What did you like about camp?
Newton: That we got to put out a fire and all the sports we get to play."
This first fire camp was capped at 40 kids this year. Bacus said another 40 were on the waitlist within hours of registration opening. She expects that next year’s fire camp will be able to accept more.
