Fire Skills at the Alternative School

I was on a fire training course at Crewe Toll fire station.  During the week we learnt about lots of different parts of the fire service. Early in the week we learned how to carry out CPR. Learning how to set up the hoses in a certain way, connecting them and the importance of working as a team when carrying the hoses was all good fun. We next started learning the actions required to tell our team member to increase, decrease and cut off the water pressure. To do this we used our arms.

The team then learnt how to ‘under run’ the hoses. ‘Under run’ means taking water out of the hoses after the water pressure is switched off. To do this we needed to take two steps forward and lift the hose over our shoulders to get all the water out. Next we rolled it up and put it back in the fire truck. This is really important as when there is a fire the hose must be able to unravel quickly. After carrying out some exercises we then had to learn how to put the hoses and equipment back neatly and safely.
Later on in the week we were allowed to use the ladders. This was the best part of the week. We split into two teams, the ladder team and the climbers. I was in the Climbers team. The ladder team set up the ladder for us to climb. The ladder was long enough to reach the first floor of a building. Firstly we had to get the hose to the top of the ladder. One of the trained firemen did this for us, pulling it up using a rope then we had our chance to climb. Findlay and I climbed up the ladder one by one with our harnesses on and once we got to the top we got the hoses and sprayed water out the building.
On the last day we put on a display of all our new skills for our parents and families. Finally there was a presentation we we were all given a Certificate for successfully completing our weeks fire training.