Redwood Meadows Emergency Services (RMES) is offering its fire cadet camp for teens 14 to 17 once again, with a couple of new additions for this year.
A Level 3 camp will now be offered to cadets returning for their third year. Cadets will learn about ladder handling, firefighter survival, sprinklers and leadership skills. The cadets entering this advance program were the pilot group from the first year of the camp’s existence.
RMES has also partnered with Wholesale Fire and Rescue as a new sponsor of the camp. The company, which sells protective equipment and clothing for firefighters, has designed and supplied camp T-shirts. A number of their staff will be on hand to assist in the running of the camp.
The number of instructors or ‘platoon leaders’ has also been increased to five, with each week of the camp being run by three leaders – two that lead a platoon of six cadets each and the third instructor helping to set up activities.
“Not many of their friends will be able to say they went to camp this summer and extinguished fires, searched smoked-out rooms or cut apart a car,” said captain Gary Robertson, the camp’s coordinator.
He said the camp not only provides teens in the community with life skills and positive values, but offers a chance to test a potential career path in emergency services.
Three levels are offered: Level I from July 20 to 24; Level II from Aug. 3 to 7; and Level III from Aug. 17 to 21. Each level builds on the next, so they need to be taken in order. RMES generally recommends doing a camp per year so that cadets can return for multiple years, Robertson said, but cadets can attend multiple weeks in a single year.
The camp runs Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for the dates listed, except Thursdays when cadets have an overnight camp out. Space is limited to 12 spots.
For more information and to register, visit rmesfire.org/site/index.php/fire-cadet-camp.
