By Tanya Steele
Fire safety awareness and a good dash of fun were on the agenda for some lucky primary school kids ahead of the bushfire season across the Yarra Ranges.
Big smiles, flashing lights and some epic water displays made for a fun learning experience for Coldstream Primary School kids on Monday 15 August.
“They loved it, I had to laugh at the faces when turned the pump on and blew the water out the sides,” Mr Brown said.
CFA Coldstream volunteers Graham Brown, David Timms, Nola Amos and Scott McCloud were invited to the primary school to teach kids about fire safety and demonstrate their fire truck capabilities – most notably the water and horn functions.
The visit came about when CFA was at the school doing regular fire extinguisher services and a teacher asked if they could come and do a talk with the students.
“We said, yes we can do that and we arranged a day and we brought the truck to the front of the school,” Mr Brown said.
“We went through what the CFA do, go to housefires, bushfires and car accidents and rescues, not just fighting fires.
Mr Brown briefed the kids on the different uniforms, which are different depending on the circumstances.
“We asked the kids if they knew what a fire plan is and one boy piped up and said ‘that’s when we escape’ he said.
Mr Brown said the kids were clearly a bit clued in and had clearly already picked on some fire awareness.
“They said when there’s a fire you gotta ‘get out quick’ and ‘you gotta get down low’ and I thought that was pretty good,” he said.
Kye said he remembered that you had to get down low and crawl away from the smoke.
“I enjoyed the information about how to be a firefighter,” said Max.
The business soon turned to the firetruck and the kids immediately requested to “see the red and blue lights go”.
“They thought it was fantastic,” Mr Brown said.
Maddi and Ava said they thought the lights and sirens were the best and Jazzy loved the uniforms.
”I thought the fire truck squirting the water was the best part,” said Mitchell.
The class also shared some of their own experiences with previous fires and things that had happened in their own homes.
The volunteers told the kids how much they enjoyed their volunteer work and some of the children couldn’t quite believe that people volunteer to go out to a fire emergency.
Mr Brown said the crew and kids had a great time and the volunteers loved the thank you cards they received from the kids.
“I enjoyed presenting our gifts of appreciation,” said Ethan.
“I learned to be prepared,” said Oscar.
Mr Brown said he hadn’t had a school visit for a while and is looking forward to the Coldstreams CFA’s Spring Open Day on 29 October.
“I told them we’ll be squirting hoses and doing all sorts of fun things and if your parents wanted to join as well that would be great,” he said.
