Youth in Amory learn about safety with Jr. Fire Academy
AMORY, Miss. (WCBI) – Learning how to handle emergencies at any age is essential and can save lives.
The Amory Fire Department is taking note.
Firefighters are emphasizing the importance of fire safety and what to do in an emergency at their annual Jr. Fire academy.
You hope to never encounter different types of emergencies, but it is important to know how to handle those situations.
Amory firefighters are working with kids to learn safety techniques at the 3rd annual Jr. Fire Academy.
They said one of their objectives is to get more in-depth with emergency preparedness.
“We want them to be prepared for the unexpected,” Firefighter Cruz Jimenez said.
Amory Lieutenant Firefighter Tony Garza said there’s more to learn about safety than just outside the school’s classroom.
“Topics that we feel are important to teach the kids to teach them how to be safe around a fire, but also things to do in situations such as their home being on fire, and how they would have the best chance to survive that,” Garza said. “Get out of the house, and what to do if they are not able to get out of the house. Instead of us having to speed through and meet a small time window of 30-45 minutes, we now have a week to break down each topic to these kids.”
There are nearly 100 kids who have participated in the three-week program.
Firefighter Cruz Jimenez said it’s fun to bond with the children and to educate them.
“Amory is growing, it’s a growing community, and to see the kids wanting to come out every year and to see it growing and to see the community back our program up,” Jimenez said.
Firefighters hope the experience helps kids carry the information with them when they leave.
“It’s fun to get to work with them and to get to practice some of this stuff and actually put their hands-on like a fire hose for real, or going in doing a search pattern and get to see them practice all that,” Garza said.
“It’s exciting to see the returning kids,” Jimenez said, “We had several returning kids in all three weeks to come back, so it is exciting for them to see them grow and want to continue to come back every year.”
The fire department will hold a graduation ceremony to wrap up the academy.
The Junior Fire Academy was open to kids from 6-12 years old.
