Two young women struggle while maneuvering the Jaws of Life to open the driver-side door of a damaged white van. Squamish firefighters move in to help.
While this looks from a distance like a scene from a traffic accident, it was actually a moment from the first Howe Sound Junior Firefighter Academy at the Squamish Fire Rescue training centre. Unlike for a real car accident, people were smiling.
About 10 students from Squamish’s Sea to Sky Alternative School got to try everything from running up a ladder wearing firefighting gear, dragging a “victim” to safety, spraying a target with the fire hose, simulating going through a burning building and doing an extraction with the Jaws of Life – and that was all before lunch.
The spark, so to speak, for the academy came from longtime volunteer firefighter Neil Deo, who was born and raised in Squamish.
Deo, a self-described former heroin addict, had given drug and alcohol lectures at schools in the corridor for years and saw the academy as an extension of that work.
“I figured, you know what, we have volunteer firefighters, we have a pretty nice training site, let’s get these kids out and start doing stuff.”
It took a year and a half to work through the legal and insurance red tape, but on Friday it all came together.
“We are trying to teach them leadership skills, positive choices,” Deo said, while watching one of the students run an obstacle course that included hitting a tire with a sledgehammer. “I mean, a bad choice out in the field for us, there is drastic consequences that we will have to face: life or death, pretty much.”
Deo said he hopes to expand the program to include students from all schools.
“There isn’t enough public service stuff in high school,” he said. “This kind of opens the door to being a paramedic, a firefighter, RCMP, military,” he said.
The dozen Squamish Fire Rescue members who led the academy Friday volunteered their time to work with the students.
“It is fantastic,” said Stuart Bent, the students’ vice-principal, having just come from the training centre smoke house with a few of the boys from the school.
Bent said the students on hand had all signed up for the academy, and he would like to see more of his students involved in the one-day course.
“What we are hoping is that there will be a respect for the work the guys do in the fire department and the design is to work on the teamwork piece and co-operation.”
Deo said if such an academy had existed when he was in high school, it might have made a difference for him. When he was out of rehab, Deo turned to firefighting as a way to keep busy and give back.
“I wanted to get into something that would help the community,” he said, adding he has learned he is the type of person who needs to keep his mind and body busy.
Originally being accepted to the department wasn’t easy, though. “They wouldn’t let me in for the longest time,” he said.
Once the chief at the time gave him a chance, he had to prove himself, he said.
He has now been a volunteer firefighter for nine years. And this month, May 4, marked 12 years clean for Deo.
When not fighting fires or helping students, Deo can be found at his day job as a heavy duty mechanic or spending time with his wife and three daughters.
