Coquitlam Fire Rescue’s annual junior firefighter academy is more than just a chance for local high school students to get their hands dirty tearing apart cars with the Jaws of Life or rappelling from the training tower at Firehall #1.
It’s a way for the dozen or so Grade 11 and 12 students to learn to function as a team while challenging themselves to beyond their expected limits or abilities, said the department’s deputy chief of operations, Scott Young.
The eight-day program has run for four years now, and while Young said it’s still too soon to determine whether any of its participants will go on to a career in firefighting, the skills they gather will serve them in many aspects of their lives no matter the direction they take.
“They learn to trust both the equipment and their own abilities,” Young said. “It’s fun to watch them let go of a railing and trust their team has them as they dangle upside down from a rope.”
Besides learning the techniques and safety procedures of technical operations like rope rescue, the teens are also exposed to managing high-pressure hoses and nozzles, working while wearing a self-contained breathing apparatus, auto extrication, first aid, setting up hydrants and the proper use of a fire extinguisher.
