Youth Firefighting Programs
Here is an article from News 10 in Syracuse, NY, about the possiblity of the Trumansburg fire department recruiting kids as a young as 16.
At age sixteen there are a lot of firsts. You get your driver's license and take the SAT's. For Mike Meskill, he also wants to be a volunteer firefighter. If the Trumansburg Fire Department gets their way, he will be able to do just that. They are trying to lower the minimum volunteer age to 16.
There are many established programs out their for youth to be active in firefighting by joining a fire explorer post. Check out the Fire Service Exploring website for details.
The main issue I see here is safety. The fire ground is a dangerous place and it is difficult enough to keep adults from doing stupid things. How much more difficult is it to keep teenagers from getting into injured or killed?
What are your thoughts on this issue? Are sixteen-year-olds too young to be firefighters, even on a limited basis?
Comments
There's nothing new about 16-year-olds becoming firefighters. I joined the Marcus Hook, Pa., Fire Dept in 1950 at 16. There were a few restrictions until you were 18. No interior firefighting; you couldn't vote for officers in the annual elections and were not allowed to go on ambulance calls. Everything else was fair game. We were allowed to leave school when the siren sounded. By the time we were 18 we had been to fire training schools, knew the equipment, hydrant locations and all the basics that every member got whenever they joined. Most of the kids who joined at 16 stayed on for years and one became a paid fireman in a nearby city. There have been some incidents around the country where young members have become firesetters, but of course that happens with older firefighters as well. As for danger, I'm willing to bet that proportionally, more 16-year-old kids are seriously injured in high school sports activities than firefighters at 16.
Posted by: Don Collins at January 21, 2006 09:34 PM
