Firefighters from the Kent Regional Fire Authority spent Saturday, May 21, at Station 74 teaching two Kent-Meridian students about fighting fires and responding to emergency situations.
Simon Okullu, a Kent-Meridian senior and Tatyana Vinnichuk, a junior at Kent Meridian, dressed in firefighter gear, climbed an extended ladder and were taken inside a smoke filled building to put out a fire.
All situations were set up with compete safety but enough realism for the the students to get a sense of what firefighters and emergency responders must do to complete their jobs.
Capt. Kyle Ohashi gave the students a wealth of information about the real-life challenges facing a firefighter.
“When we fight fires it is often pitch black,” Ohasi said. “They (firefighters) are crawling around listening for people and fire.”
Ohashi noted a room may be 400 to 1,000 degrees.
He told the students firefighters all wear protective gear, crawl low where the room is the coolest and the firefighters will attempt to cool a building as quickly as possible.
After Okullu went into into the smoke filled building to put out a fire on the Station 74 grounds used to teach the skills to firefighters, he came out with a greater understanding of the skills needed to fight fires.
“It is really intense,” Okulla said. “I couldn’t see and the hose was really hard to control. That work is really hard.”
Vinnichuk siad, “I learned it is not as easy as you think. In movies it looks easy, but you get really tired.”
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