By Jeannette Scott
Lancaster New Era (Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2007 Lancaster Newspapers, Inc.
LANCASTER, PA — The Christiana Fire Company hosted its second-annual Fire Experience Kids Camp on Friday and Saturday at the fire house on Bridge Street, Christiana.
More than 70 children, ages 5 to 14, sat on the hillside behind the Christiana Fire Company, watching a clear sky in quiet anticipation. Fire Chief Randy Buckwalter kept them posted.
“Three minutes, boys and girls,” he said.
Suddenly, the beating rhythm of a helicopter was heard, and all heads turned left to see the shiny red Sky FlightCare helicopter appear over the trees.
The chopper landed at the foot of the hill, blowing wind and cut grass at the spectators. Skyward faces quickly ducked and smiles gave way to squinting eyes. The blast of air and noise only heightened the excitement.
Fire Experience Kids Camp was developed to teach fire safety to kids in a hands-on, entertaining experience. In an era marked by a dwindling supply of volunteer emergency personnel, it also doesn’t hurt that it’s nurturing interest in the next generation of potential volunteers.
“We wanted to get kids involved in something worthwhile,” Buckwalter said. “Plus, we’re hoping to spark interest in community service, and with the older ones, to spark interest in the Junior Firefighter program.”
Ten other emergency services groups assisted Christiana Fire Company with Fire Experience Kids Camp. They were the Atglen, Cochranville, Gap, Kennett, Parkesburg and Westwood fire companies, the Christiana Police Department, the Christiana and Parkesburg ambulance companies, and Sky FlightCare.
The camp was free to participants. The Christiana Fire Company recruited sponsors to help with expenses and necessities, which consisted mostly of food and T-shirts for the children.
Camp began Friday evening with an open house to show off at least six emergency vehicles and the Sky FlightCare helicopter, which is based at Brandywine Hospital in Coatesville.
On Saturday, a full-day schedule included instruction, training stations and a live demonstration by firefighters of a building ventilation and patient rescue.
The training stations were hands-on activities where children applied what they were taught in the instruction sessions. They practiced first aid, cooking safety, bicycle safety, seatbelt and airbag safety, and created personalized home-evacuation plans.
They practiced the procedure called “Stop, Drop, and Roll” and a military crawl to be used to escape a smoky environment. They also practiced evacuation procedures in the Family Safety House, an educational utility vehicle provided by Kennett Fire Company No. 1.
In the rescue demonstration on Saturday, firefighters created a controlled smoldering of wet straw bales inside a wood shed. As smoke billowed out of the back vent, an engine roared its sirens and rushed to the scene from around the block as the children watched from a safe distance.
Firefighters mounted the roof with a ladder and cut a hole in it with a chain saw, letting billows of smoke escape from the shed. Then, they entered the shed and “rescued” the mock victim - another firefighter who was well protected in all his gear.
Campers also got a close look at what emergency services personnel do and the equipment they use. They children climbed in and out of fire trucks and ambulances on Friday, and asked a multitude of questions of their crews.
Stephanie Rathbun, a Christiana emergency medical technician, had no trouble keeping the attention of six children who piled into the back of an ambulance with her to examine medical equipment. One even tried out the pulse oximeter, which slides onto the fingertip and measures pulse and oxygenation of hemoglobin.
While other children stuck open mouths and wide-eyed heads inside the Sky FlightCare helicopter, fifth-grader Colton Tucker of Parkesburg looked up at flight paramedic Sean Kluge, who stood tall in a blue flight suit, with a white helmet tucked under his arm.
Kluge took quick notice of Tucker, and had a man-to-man chat about his job and his high-tech transport, answering Tucker’s eager questions about how to become a paramedic, and told him to go for it.
Kids Camp organizers hope Tucker and other participants give the emergency services serious consideration as they grow older.
Youths as young as 14 can become Junior Firefighters. While they are limited in the duties they can perform for safety reasons, they train with adult firefighters and respond to fire calls.
They learn hose handling, vehicle extrication, fire streams and other skills in preparation for continued service when they reach age 18.