The smoke is clearing as 18-year-old Ben Shugar emerges from the live fire training facility on Pender Island. He’s tired but energized.
“Live fire, yeah, I’m really into it,” he says. “I love the feeling. There’s so much adrenalin but you also have to take deep breaths and calm your mind so you can think clearly.”
Ben and his buddies have just tackled a simulated house fire, coming to grips with heat, smoke and working in a confined space. This is no ordinary after-school activity, and this is no ordinary camp.
Created 18 years ago as a six-day introduction to fire suppression and search and rescue, the Gulf Islands Fire Rescue Cadet Camp is held every two years during March Spring Break at Fire Hall No. 1 on Pender Island halfway between the Mainland and Vancouver Island.
Activities include, among other things, putting out fires, rappelling down walls, applying CPR and strapping casualties into baskets for extraction by helicopter. Students get valuable work-experience credit – their school pays their way – but the hope is they’ll move on after graduation and pursue a career as first responders and assist their local fire departments in a real emergency.
Pender Island Fire Chief Mike Dine, who runs the program, says volunteer help is crucial to the camp’s success – it would cost the organizers three times as much without it, he says – and Pender’s older generation always steps up.
“I have more volunteers than I can take. I can’t feed them all,” he laughs.
Volunteers like 62-year-old Ian Elliott. Semi-retired after a career in construction and management, Ian has been involved with the camp since it began. He drives the shuttle bus, fills the oxygen bottles with air for the breathing packs, helps prepare the breakfast buffet and makes sandwiches for lunch in the camp kitchen. As a former Pender Island firefighter and camp trainer, himself, he knows what he’s talking about.
“We may not have the physicality of what we did in our thirties and forties,” he says, “but we do have the knowledge, the ability and the time to assist and help the next generation.”
Sixty-three-year-old volunteer Linda Simpson also helps. She moved to Pender Island in 2008 after a career in the forestry sector, the RCMP and then the Coast Guard and joined the camp the moment she arrived. She volunteers her time as the “parade marshal,” or, as she puts it, “ensuring that the clock ticks properly,” making sure everyone adheres to the schedule and reports to their activity. She’s a familiar fixture wandering the premises with clipboard in hand and, although she blushes at the moniker, she’s the camp’s unofficial Mom.
“Sometimes the kids need someone to talk to and they have me as a sounding board,” she says. “So, anything they need assistance with, I’ll do my best to resolve it. I just keep the wheels turning.”
Sixty students from the neighbouring islands applied for a position this year; 16 were selected. Broken down into four teams of four, each unit rotates through a series of activities or stations. And yes, it is co-ed.
“It’s really rewarding to see what your work is doing,” says 17-year-old Maeve Junker after helping to peel back the roof of a wreck with hydraulic tools. Maeve’s interested in a career in Emergency Services, and she can do whatever her male counterparts can do.
“You don’t have to bench press 350 pounds to be a first responder,” says Fire Chief Mike. “Everyone’s experiencing the same level of danger, stress and strength.”
Students not only learn firefighting skills but teamwork and co-operation. Sure, they may be nervous entering the program on Day One, says Ian, but working together breeds success and “by the end of the week, they’re positively glowing with self-confidence.”
Pender resident Brigitte Prochaska has been with the camp since its inception. She’s the Southern Gulf Islands Emergency Program Co-ordinator but she’s also been a volunteer firefighter with Pender Island Fire Rescue for the past 20 years. During camp drills, Brigitte runs the pump panel on the fire truck feeding water to the hoses. She introduced her daughter, Morgan, to the camp 12 years ago. Morgan not only continued her training to become a first responder with the View Royal Fire Department but often returns to the camp to help others.
“I’m so proud,” says Brigitte. “I’ve been to every camp there is. After the first camp, I was just so energized watching what was happening to these kids as they went through the process. How they come in and how they leave. It’s amazing.”
Amazing is the keyword. Planning is about to begin for the next camp two years down the road, and you can bet Brigitte, Ian, Linda, and the others will be on hand to help when training resumes.
For more information about Pender Island Fire Cadet Camp, visit www.facebook.com/FIRECADETS
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