The work is never done for a firefighter.
A group of Chatham-Kent firefighters literally came from helping at a fire Monday morning to Tilbury District High School to show students some of the inner workings of their job as part of the completion of the "firefighter in a high school" initiative.
The program, which ran for nine weeks as part of the Grade 10 civics and careers class, is aimed at giving students the opportunity to connect with first responders.
This year marks the second year the initiative has run, kicking off in Ridgetown and expanding this year to include the communities of Blenheim and Tilbury.
"We thought we could let the kids learn from the firefighters, give them the friendly faces of the first responders, and teach them the importance of getting an education...it works for us because we get the safety message out and overall we can potentially get new recruits who can jump on the trucks," said Fire Chief Chris Case.
To celebrate the completion of this year's program, the firefighters brought out the truck, some gear and allowed the participating students to try out the hoses.
Grade 10 student Josh Reaume enjoyed the addition to his classroom routine, especially learning about the different ways you can train to become a firefighter.
"I think it's pretty cool. We are lucky with where we live that we can do an auxiliary program," said Reaume.
Objectives of the program included strengthening the relationships between high school students and first responders, as well as learning fire safety and problem solving.
"It's really about preparing the youth in our rural communities especially, to give back to the community. To be involved with the Lambton-Kent district school board, it's a partnership unlike any other and I'm really happy we are doing it in the secondary schools," explained Chatham-Kent Fire and Rescue Public Educator Whitney Burk.
Burk hopes to see the program expand as it enters year three. "We would love to be in every high school across LKDSB I don't think there is any one community that benefits more than another...the more people who see the value in this program the better and we are willing to expand as far as we possibly can," said Burk.
