Grade 6 student Emma Lee was chosen to become fire chief for a day, where she witnessed the dispatch process and participated in several life-saving training exercises with local firefighters from Station No. 2.--NEWS PHOTOS BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
On Wednesday, Medicine Hat firefighters reported to a new chief for duty as they welcomed Emma Lee, a Grade 6 student at River Heights School, to experience a day in the life of a first responder and participate in life-saving training exercises.
Lee’s day began like any other normal school day, however when she arrived Wednesday morning she was greeted by crew members from Station No. 2 in a firetruck and was told she would be acting as chief for the day.
“Like, I had no idea, I just thought it was a regular day just doing stuff” she said.
At that time however, she didn’t know “doing stuff” would involve going to a real fire call as well as taking part in life-saving drills like searching through a smokey building and putting out a fire, while wearing about 40 pounds of turnout gear.
As fire chief, Lee began her morning meeting local 911 operators and was shown first-hand how emergency calls are dispatched before arriving at the fire hall. It didn’t take long before a structure fire was called through the radio and Lee witnessed the dispatch process by seeing local crews spring into action.
“It’s super cool to watch how they do stuff and just imagine how it would be in real life,” said Lee.
“So, she got to witness us get in the truck, get dressed and leave the building in a hurry,” explained platoon chief Jason Labash. “We had the alarm on the fire truck, the siren going, we had the air horns going, we had the lights going and she got to witness the whole thing.”
Although the fire turned out to be a false alarm, Lee says she has a newfound interest in firefighting after witnessing their professionalism.
Upon returning, Lee experienced a comprehensive tour of the fire hall, including the firetruck operations and life-saving tools.
The Grade 6 student learned how to handle a fire hose and spray water, search a burning building and perform a forceful entry on a doorway in the station training tower.
“She got to crawl through our maze and entanglement area, and then at the end, we actually got her to do a search,” explains Labash. “So she did a search on the top floor and she found a crib. We asked her, ‘What do you think is in the crib?’ So she went in the crib and found a baby (training doll) and brought the baby all the way down the stairs”
“It’s just super cool to be able to hang out with somebody that would help other people,” she said.
To top it off, Lee was also able to slide down the firefighter’s pole, before heading to the airport to learn about the fire service’s air-rescue team.
“Emma is amazing, she’s energetic, she’s inquisitive, she really wants to buy into what the fire chief is doing,” said Labash.
Lee was chosen through a Fire Prevention Week contest open to local students from Grade 4-6.
“So the most important part about fire chief for the day is just getting people to recognize that we just did fire prevention month, we talked a lot about kitchen safety this year.” said Labash. “We want to educate all the kids and all the adults, everyone, about fire safety.”
To finish off a hard day’s work as chief, fire crews returned her back to her school for a pizza party with her classmates.
