Wirral pupils win chance to become firefighters for a day (From Wirral Globe)

Wirral pupils win chance to become firefighters for a day

10:41am Tuesday 15th January 2013 in News By Craig Manning

PUPILS from two Wirral schools became firefighters for a day after winning a fire safety poster competition.

The 12 pupils from Riverside Primary School and St Joseph's Primary School, which are based in Seacombe, visited Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service for a Firefighting Experience Day.

MF&RS has been working with the two schools to teach them about fire safety, resulting in a poster competition, which attracted around 500 entries.

The winners were announced at a free family event organised by MF&RS at Seacombe Space Port car park in November.

They won trophies, certificates and the chance to try out firefighting for the day at the MF&RS Training and Development Academy in Croxteth.

During the Firefighting Experience Day they were taught about the dangers of fire, what to do if a fire breaks out in their home and the importance of smoke alarms.

They were then given a live demonstration of a chip pan fire, had the opportunity to put out fires using different fire extinguishers and had a go at rolling out hose reels.

Crew Manager Eddie Parry, a Fire Community Safety Officer IFIP (Intensive Families Intervention Program) for Wirral, who organised the event, said: "The children had a great time and all felt like real firefighters at the end of the day.

"Events like this are a good way for us to engage with children and teach them about fire safety in a fun way. They had a lot of fun and also seemed to learn a lot during the project."