CARROT RIVER — Carrot River Fire Department has designed a junior firefighter program, to allow youth from Grades 10 to 12 become members.
As junior members they are under 18, and that comes with restrictions.
“We designed this as the building blocks,” said Bryce Lytle, fire chief at the Carrot River Fire Department, “to advance them, so when they become 18 they already have all the knowledge behind them and they can just step out onto the fire ground and be an active member right off the bat.”
Anyone under the age of 17 is allowed to respond to calls, but they can only assist in cleanup after calls and volunteering when they’re not at school.
“Once they become 17 we’re allowing them to start to come on calls, but it will be a support role only,” Lytle said. “They’ll be on scene but only helping out. They won’t be doing any active fire suppression or vehicle extrication. They’re there just to learn how we act in the emergency situation and how everybody works together as well as what needs to be done with calls.”
They had junior members in these roles before, but now the Carrot River Fire Department made program guidelines that supports and prioritizes the individual member’s school life.
“There were rules and guidelines set out, but nothing really set in stone. It was all just kind of common knowledge for everybody. This created a program where we can work with the high school as well as work with the fire department,” Lytle said. “Because in my world, their priority should be finishing school.”
With this comes several rules for the members. Junior firefighters must maintain at least an 80 per cent attendance – including excused and unexcused absence, they have to be in good standing academically and not have outstanding assignments. The junior firefighters are also expected to follow school rules and expectations while part of the program.
“In the past we had junior firefighters. When I took over there were only two junior members on the department,” Lytle said.
“The goal is for this, in the perfect world, we’d have two members from each grade: 10, 11 and 12. So a maximum of six, and as they grow older they get more responsibilities until they are eventually 17 and they start going out on calls, as I said, in that support role, and learning the next phase. Then once they’re 18 and become adults they’re allowed to do active fire suppression.”
