Foster Sissons and his mother Yvonne are seen 100 feet above the ground in one of the Medicine Hat Fire and Emergency Services ladder trucks as the Grade 6 students experience being "Fire Chief for the Day" after winning an annual contest held by local firefighters during Fire Prevention Week.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
On Wednesday morning local firefighters reported to a new chief for duty as they welcomed Grade 6 student Foster Sissons and his mother Yvonne to experience a day in the life of a first responder and participate in life-saving training exercises.
Sissons’ day began like any other, however after arriving at École Connaught in the morning he was surprised to be greeted by crew members from Station No. 2 in a ladder truck and told he would be acting as chief for the day.
“I was just doing a normal class day, but then my mom came in with some firefighters, they came and picked me up and we rode in this huge fire truck.”
Sissons was selected winner of the Fire Chief for the Day contest held annually by the Medicine Hat Fire and Emergency Services, held as part of Fire Prevention Week in October.
To begin his day full of duties, Sissons was taken to the local 911 dispatch centre to meet local operators, and was shown first hand how emergency calls are dispatched before leaving for the fire hall.
Sissons was able to ask dispatchers how they are able to find the location of a call from a cell phone, Wi Fi phone or land line for children who don’t know their addresses, and was shown how operators are able to track down phone locations.
“So that was really good to know and also it just reiterated how important it is for kids and people to know their address when they do a 911 call,” said Yvonne.
Sissons’ next order of duty was to report for training at Station No. 2 where he suited up in firefighter turnout gear and took part in hands-on training to better understand daily operations within the fire hall.
After a comprehensive tour of the fire hall, Sissons was suited up with climbing gear and participated in a new tech rescue climbing training session with firefighters.
“He got to participate in some tech rescue training, where he got to go up on some ropes and it’s one of our new training apparatus,” said active fire chief Chad Eakins.
The young student then had the opportunity to get a bird’s-eye view of the city as he was lifted more than 100 feet in the station’s ladder truck for a demonstration.
“I was a little nervous at first, but once I was up there, it’s not really scary and just really cool to be so high up, and, like, you can see everything around you,” he said.
Sissons says the opportunity to hang out with the firefighters throughout the day changed his perspective on work involved keeping the community safe.
“They have a lot of surprising equipment that you don’t really think of that much,” he said. “They have to have air tanks and gas masks and all that stuff to be in a fire.”
“I think it shows (the kids) the whole process,” explained Eakins. “I think a lot of the community gets to see our frontline folks, which are the big red trucks rolling out the door. But there are a lot of things that happen in the background to make all of that come to fruition and happen and be as successful as we’ve been in this department.”
Following his visit at Station No. 2, Sissons was also provided a tour of the service’s operations based out of the Medicine Hat Regional Airport.
Sissons says the experience sparked a newfound interest in becoming a firefighter when he is older.
“Yeah, I definitely think it’s pretty cool and I think I might want to be like that when I grow up.”
To finish off a hard day’s work as chief, fire crews returned Sissons to his Grade 6 class to host a pizza party with his classmates.
