Local students participate in fire camp
Published 3:03 pm Friday, July 22, 2016
(Leader photo/TED YOAKUM)
(Leader photo/TED YOAKUM)
(Leader photo/TED YOAKUM)
(Leader photo/TED YOAKUM)
(Leader photo/TED YOAKUM)
(Leader photo/TED YOAKUM)
If standing outside in the sweltering summer heat while encased inside a full suit of protective firefighting gear was not bad enough, the heat from the flames jutting from the inside of a car fire only a few feet away surely had a group of local high school students sweating from head to toe Thursday morning.
Regardless of how they felt inside their suits, though, the group of firefighting initiates kept their cool when it counted. Working together as a team, the students took turns handling a giant hose attached to a fire engine several yards away, spraying gallons of water to extinguish the flames emanating from the wreckage as sheets of black smoke billowed around them.
The group of seven high school students performed the exercise as part of Southwestern Michigan College’s annual fire academy, which took place this week at the local community college and the Dowagiac Fire Department. Over the last three days, the students — hailing from schools in Dowagiac, Marcellus, Edwardsburg and Cassopolis — were given a crash course on firefighting, taught by the men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting the public.
“It is like a mini academy, to expose them to what we do,” said Doug Michels, a member of the Dowagiac fire department who serves as head instructor for the program.
Michels was joined by three other firefighters with his department, as well as four volunteers with the Sister Lakes Fire Department to help teach the students Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Originally scheduled to take place in late spring, the annual academy — a part of SMC’s Educational Talent Search program — was rescheduled for July, contracted to just three days as a result of the change, Michels said.
In spite of shortened schedule, participants in the program were still given the chance to immerse themselves in several hands-on lessons and activities meant to demonstrate the type of challenges firefighters face on the field. In addition to the car fire exercise hosted at the local department Thursday, the students were placed in a simulation of what it is like to navigate a burning building Wednesday at the college, where they were blindfolded and told to call out for survivors while wondering the halls of Thomas F. Jerdon Hall, all while wearing firefighting suits and equipment.
“They all think it [firefighting] is fun and flashy, like they see on ‘Chicago Fire’ on TV,” Michels said. “Then they come out here and it is like a reality check. They don’t realize this is hard work.”
In spite of the gravitas of some of the simulations, Michels and the other instructors keep things light with the students, including playing a round of water balloons following the car fire exercise Thursday, he said.
To close out the academy, the group plans on traveling to Chicago Friday, where they will observe the operation of the Chicago Fire Department’s training academy, along with other surprise activities, Michels said.
Of the seven students participating in this year’s program, four are returning from previous camps, Michels said.
One of these veteran students is Dowagiac Union High School senior Kyra Kuriata, who has participated in the program the past four years, she said. In spite of the heat, she said she enjoyed Thursday’s exercise in particular, as it is always the most memorable part of the experience.
“It’s the adrenaline you feel, as it runs through your body,” Kuriata said.
With both her father and grandfather formerly serving with the Dowagiac fire department, participating in the academy and working alongside active firefighters has given Kuriata a deeper appreciation of the stories her family members shared with her when she was a child, she said.
Based off her time with the academy, the senior said she wants to join the fire department when she gets older.
“It is a good experience, not just for the adrenaline rush but also because you know the skills you learn can one day help people out,” she said.
