OK guys,
In my first week as a Fire Safety Officer, I'm told that next week I will be required to teach kids from pre-school age to what we used to call Standard 2, about Fire Safety.
I've been reading the "Guidelines for School visits" document and things have changed a LOT since I last gave a school visit in Ashburton.
As far as this document goes, you are not allowed to wear Breathing Apparatus in front of the kids, it could scare them.
Children are also not allowed to hold hoses (generally a High Pressure Hose reel, set to a low pressure), it could get out of control on them.
It is forbidden for any Operational Fire-fighter, Officer or the like to place their own helmet on the head of a young person.
{This I can actually agree with, there was a youngster that had their neck broken after the helmet was too heavy}.
Ask Ray, our helmets are quite heavy.
But this last one really rubbed me up the wrong way.
C'mon, my first experience of a Fire Appliance was sitting in the old Temuka 861, which was an old CF Bedford at the time.
I was at Primary School, the Head-master was the 3rd Officer of the local Fire Brigade.
In a time when we are screaming out for new blood, and you get rules like this??.
One other thing about BA masks, and what have you, at a Fire Station would be the place to see a Fire-Fighter wearing them.
We want to impart the fact that we are there to help not scare children.
Children hide in the most in-accessible places in House Fires, we are trying to stop that.
Your thoughts?.

If a kindergardener isn't shown what a firefighter looks like with their BA during a demonstration, they may only see it if they are in a fire and get scared then. When I was in kindergarden, and even pre school, they showed us what they look like with their suit on, and told us "If your house is on fire, don't run from a firefighter dressed like this." They were worried about kids getting scared during an emergency and hiding under a bed in a burning house, so our local FD was required to show their equipment.

This is USA, b.t.w.

[This message has been edited by PEdoubleNIZZLE (edited 05-25-2006).]

Josh,
Fire-fighters around the world are just that.
We usually have 2 people in what we call "dress uniform" at the start of the presentation.
One of us generally suits up in what we call Level 1 PPE, as in boots, overalls.
And L1 Gloves, light duty gloves.
Next goes on is Level 2, Level 2 Bunker coat,
Over-trousers, Gloves (leather).
This is the the level that we enter building and structure fires with.
Overseas, the outer layers are made from what they call Nomex.
Really good stuff too.
Over the top of Level 2 you have a BA set and harness.
And a good Pacific Helmet w/Visor.

Mike, the P.C. brigade has gone over the top I think.
Exactly what you say happens in Auckland too.
At least my kids 4½ and 7 have the chance to sit in a firetruck if they wish or hold a HPD hose at low pressure to have a squirt behind the firestation is they want on a hot summers day.

At the Titirangi Playcentre they have now removed one 4 meter tall tree, which was left near the playground, in case kids climb them and fall out. He, we all have to learn sometimes by our own mistakes, and it can hurt sometimes

Next step will be mandatory hardhats full time for the kids to go on the swing. It' becoming a bit silly sometimes.

All the bark from the yard was replaced with some form of rubber spray, because bark pieces were a litlle sharp according to some mums.

I do agree, the Fire service helmets are quite heavy, but you don't just chuck it on a 4 y.o. kid anyway, and usually guide it carefully, and tell them that it is heavy if they want to try it.

Just had a K41.1 and 3 status ones in a serious MVA last Thurday and a K99 housefire with a kannabis plantage.

Mike , I hope you enjoy your new job.

Regards Raymond

Trumpy,
just listening to the radio. Some town has a very bad turn out for Church attendance.
A new priest (female) was appointed.

She decided to alter the dress code from black & boring/frightening, to.... wait for it...Pink Hair, Pink Car, Pink Cloak (or whatever they'r called!), mind you she kept the white collar!!

Now she don't have to go to them to pursuade them to go to church....They come to her as they as very inquisitive.

Plus more Tv adverts, in kids prime time.

Good Luck!

You mean you've still got swings?
There was a council notice in the local rag last week advising of the removal of swings
to "make our playgrounds safer". That's politically correct speak for "we can't afford to pay compo to some greedy parent when kid falls off and breaks arm". Back in my day, kid broke arm and got on with life.

Excellent point Trumpy about teaching Kids not to be scared of Firemen wearing breathing masks. What can be done about changing this part of the "Guideline For School Visits" ? While you're at it you might as well get the bit about banning kids from sitting in the Fire Engine changed too.

Kids should be able to sit in the Fire Engine cab , crank the siren up and get enthusiastic about the Fire Brigade. Thats what happened when my school visited the Central Christchurch Fire Station when I was a kid. Hell, they even had a dalmation dog at the station!

Perhaps now with plastic being so cheap, every kid could go away from the visit with their own imitation "Firefighter Helmet".

Great comments guys,
Look, I'm not on any sort of PC crusade or anything, but being the first at anything in a given area is always hard, reading the drivel in that document saddened me more than anything.
Biggest part of the Fire Safety Division is education, that's OK but to do that with such a restrictive set of rules, takes all the fun out of learning, and learning should be just that, fun, or you never remember it.
I mean, it's not as though we are showing the kids graphic pictures of burn victims or the like, that I would really be against.
----------------------------------------
It went really well on Monday morning, I had a word with our Chief Fire Officer the night before and he told me to do as I felt right.
I did all the stuff I was going to in the first place while the CFO gave the parents a good run down on Fire Safety in the home.
We opened up all the doors on our new Dennis Rapier pump (yes it is English) and let the kids sit in it, they all got to hold the hose and I pulled the pump out into the area behind the station to show them a fire appliance working, with the Deck monitor on, that gave a few smiles!.
The whole day was a great success according to the CFO, he even managed to get 2 applicants to be volunteer FF's, we need as many as we can get with people leaving this area in search of work.
Marvellous!.

Great to see your open day was a success!
I'm sure things will pan out fine, as your attitude is so positive amoung the restrictive, negative red tape these days.

Thanks a million John.
Anyone that knows me well enough knows that I hate petty rules and other crap like that.
I have a job to do and that is to promote Fire Safety, I don't need restrictive rubbish like this making my job harder.
Statements like "Oh but you can't do that like that!" just make me more determined to prove people wrong.
Fires don't observe petty rules, why should those that fight them?.

It's getting ridiculous. According to the sort of people who would ban sitting in a fire engine, remove swings from playgrounds, and wrap kids in cotton until the age of 18, the whole world is a dangerous place and we must have legislation. (Everything these days seems to herald a call for more laws -- Personally I think we already have far too many laws.)

How on earth did any of us who grew up in the 1960s/1970s ever survive?

Paul,
Mate, I couldn't agree more!.
This is one of the reasons that we have such poorly adjusted young adults these days, because of this molly-coddling (sp?).
Being prepared for the real world these kids will experience when they leave the safety of school, should start at school at a young age.

To put it simply Paul, we used things like initiative and common-sense taught to us by our parents.
I used to go out fishing and hunting in Temuka as a young fella and never once got hurt doing it (although I did get a fish-hook stuck in my finger once).
Seeing kids here with fishing rods these days would be a rarity, rivers are deemed too dangerous for kids to be anywhere near, you might drown or even worse, you might actually catch something, which would be terrible, because (so we are told) the only place you can safely get fish from, is a supermarket.

There's the problem. Common sense seems to have become extinct in some quarters.


That's where the shift in responsibility has come. When you and I were young, kids were expected to go off and play and the emphasis was on teaching us to be sensible. We had the public information films on TV supporting that notion, e.g.

The Spirit of Dark & Lonely Water, 1973


Some people do seem to have become totally paranoid. Is it surprising that we then hear that kids are growing up without immunity to certain bugs because they're been living in an environment which is too sterile?

"Fires don't observe petty rules, why should those that fight them" ?

Nice one Trumpy. "Fire-fighting" involves everything from Monsoon buckets & spraying hoses, to educating the kids.

Sounds like you're settling in to the new job nicely.

Also sounds like the rules need some input from people who have actually fought fires.

You Go ! !

As a quite professional pc guru, you could handle the NZ FF website, make a part for kids, with forum.

The friend's kid 2,5 years old, hungs on FF website, watching cars all the time.
Wouldn't it be great to make an actual website for kids?

That would make many new bloods.

Any changes since?

Yes there have been changes,
My mate Tony, has resigned as the sole Senior Station Officer.
I was asked if I wanted the rank, I told the Chief Fire Officer no way.
Any jump in rank means more paper-work and more responsiblity.
I never even intended to go any higher than Senior Fire-fighter in rank.
After we lost Phil as SSO to cancer, I was asked to take on the rank of Station Officer.
I stayed with Phil in hospital in Christchurch as he was treated there, he went for an operation to remove a tumour and a week later we buried him.
Tony was a Station Officer at the time, he moved up to SSO rank and he has indicated he has had enough after 38 years service.
I've been involved with the New Zealand Fire Service for 17 years come August, although I am employed by them once again, I have no idea how Tony did it.
He must have a very supportive family.
Because when the siren starts up or the pager goes off, the rest of your family suffers when Mum or Dad shoots off to a fire call.
Food for thought really.

As silly as things get.
I recieved a letter from the NZ Fire Service about a week ago that they would no longer be having the position of Fire Safety Officer here in town.
I could, if I wanted to, move to Christchurch and serve here, from there.
I told them to get real.
Some accountant from the NZ Fire Service HQ in Wellington must have seen the fuel bill I clocked up as a Volunteer Support Officer (seperate to Fire Safety duties) and said no way.
I'm one of a few people that holds a TELARC registration for filling breathing apparatus cylinders, in this area (Ray will know what I mean), so therefore everyone in the district loses.
One thing though, that my father told me years ago, if you have a trade, son, you'll never be out of a job.
I've still yet to prove him wrong!.
I started last weekend at a local newspaper printing company as a Maintenance Supervisor, caused by this thread.
The reason I haven't been around here much lately is that the place runs 24/7 and only really shuts down on Sundays for the "Big Clean-up".
I'll tell you guys a bit more about the place later on and I'll get some pics of the stuff I'm talking about, so that we are all on the same page (no pun intended).

Sorry to hear about the Fire Services' short-sighted decision Trumpy. Does that mean that Ash-Vegas hasn't got a local Fire Safety Officer ? There's a good example of cost-cutting over-riding common sense huh.

Are you working at the Ashburton Guardian ?

Kiwi,
Oh well mate,
It's no real skin off my nose, if that's what they want to do, who am I to argue?.
No, they are having a different officer cover this area from Christchurch.
I'd be interested how that will pan out, given the distance and the area that this job covered.
Ahh, accountants, what would we do without them?.

Yes Kiwi,
Although the company I work for is a subsidiary(sp?) of the Ashburton Guardian, I work for GuardianPrint.
Lots of gear there to be constantly repaired.
I currently have a data-logger on the Mains as I type this, lots of funny things going on there.
I'll get some pics sometime this week and show you all the stuff we use.
Bear in mind the factory is being expanded in the near future, the existing one is only 5 years old and is already too small.
BTW Kiwi,
One heartening thing upon starting there, was noticing that the place has a Vynco switchboard unit, CT chamber (400A) and meters.
So it will be interesting to open that up and have a look inside, when I get time.

Trumpy, that's good theres lots of gear there to be repaired. That should keep you occupied.

If you want to expand your Vynco switchboard then you should give me a call.