The Future of Firefighting: Kids learn fire safety at Camp 911

Not many adults know what to do when your house is on fire and there's people trapped inside. Imagine that happening at 10 years old. That's why these young kids, from ages 9–11, came to the Caledonia Fire Department for Camp 911 — to learn about fire safety.

Through Life EMS's Camp 911, about 20 of these kids were able to tour the inside of an ambulance, practice CPR and learn the importance of first aid.

According to Kyle Fennell, captain of the Caledonia Fire Department, there are three things to do in an emergency.

“We’re either going to respond and help in a situation, we’re going to freeze or we’re going to run from it,” Fennell said.

Camp 911 holds great significance for Fennell, whose son, Ben, is one of the firefighters in training.

“I think I’m persuading him to become a firefighter one day,” Fennell said.

Camp 911 aims to equip kids with the tools to act in an emergency.

“The motivation is the more people we can educate, and the younger we can educate, hopefully they will grow with an interest in these fields. ... We want to inspire the younger generation to do this,” Fennell remarked.

In this attempt to inspire the younger generation, Camp 911 made it possible for the kids to be firefighters for a day. In a real-life simulation, the kids went inside a smoke-filled home, located possible victims and brought them to safety.

Camp 911 is so important to the future of firefighting because, the truth is, kids are often the ones who do the saving.

“There’s been tremendous stories shared nationally about children being the ones that called 911, children being the first ones to do compressions on someone, children being the ones to alert their family to get out of the burning house,” Fennell said.

Today was the only 911 Camp for this year, the first since 2019. Next year, there are plans to put on five or six of these camps at local fire departments in the area.

For more details on Camp 911, go to Life EMS's Facebook page .

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