Fire Safety Camp as much fun for the firefighters as students

American Press

04-07-2025

DeRidder Firefighter Operator Kaden Ramsey said his favorite part of Fire Safety Camp is the Tug of War competitions. (Special to the American Press)
The DeRidder Fire Department hosted three weeks of Fire Safety Camp in June and now Fire Prevention Officer Adam Gray said they're already looking forward to next year and coming up with ideas on how it can be better than this year's camp.
This was the first year the camp was divided up by grade levels and Williams said next year they are considering going off of the student's age rather than grade, to help prevent confusion and hopefully let more kids come to camp. He said they are also in talks to have more community involvement. He hopes to maybe get more First Aid involvement and possibly Wildlife Safety involved for next year.
'I feel like it's worked tremendously better dividing the age groups. We have a curriculum we go off of and for certain ages you're supposed to teach certain stuff and by dividing it up through the different age groups you can set up the appropriate level of education of stuff that we do teach them,' Gray said.
Gray said having more agencies involved this year helped the camp improve. Several agencies came to camp this year to teach the kids and spend some time showing what they do. These agencies included Cleco, who also helped sponsor this year's camp; DeRidder Police Department;Louisiana State Forestry; American Red Cross; and there was also a field trip to the 911 office.
'I think going back to the roots and including others that don't always get a chance to teach kids, and having an opportunity for them to come in is beneficial,' Gray said.
Kaden Ramsey, DeRidder Firefighter Operator, has worked at the camp for three years now and said his experience on separating the age groups really allowed them to tailor their experiences of camp.
'For us as the department, it allowed us to tailor our experiences and how we taught the kids the safety material, with the younger group you're not really able to teach stop, drop, and roll because they can't distinguish whether the house is on fire or their clothes is on fire, with the older kids we can teach them that sort of thing.' Ramsey said.
Ramsey's favorite activity during camp is the tug of war with the kids. He said doing this with the kids allowed them to express their emotions and have a good time with the firefighters, while also having a team-building experience. He said it was a good ice breaker for the kids, as well.
One of Ramsey's takeaways from this year's camp is something a student walked up to him and said.
'One of the students came up to me and said how much they enjoyed seeing us (firefighters) smiling. Whenever they said that it brightened my day. Usually when they see us we're working or something serious is going on like an emergency. It's good to see them in a nonemergency situation and it's good for the kids to see us the same way, therefore they know that we're just people, too, and we do smile and we do like to have fun,' Ramsey said.
A room at camp was set up to show fire prevention tips and hazards. The kids were then able to point each hazard out and explain why it was hazardous and they learned how important it is to tell an adult to help prevent a fire from starting.
The oldest group of kids (4th and 5th grade) also took a trip to 911 during camp. There they were able to speak with the person on the other side of the phone.
'For us as adults, we know when we call 911 it's a person, but for them, they don't really understand what's going on. This gives them a chance to meet the person and they're able to ask questions and 911 also explains why they ask the questions they do in an emergency situation,' Ramsey said.
According to Ramsey, during camp the kids are taught the importance of knowing a phone number to call in case of an emergency and knowing their addresses to say in case a phone call needs to be made and they are asked those important questions. The kids are also taught to ask their parents where the exits are in their homes and the importance of working smoke alarms.
Derek Plummer, captain of the DeRidder Fire Department, has been working at the camp since it started in 2017. Now he has kids of his own and loves getting to enjoy camp with them, as well.
According to Plummer and Gray, the maze is a highlight for a lot of the kids at camp. The maze was built for the firemen to use for training, but it's become a very popular activity at camp.
'The maze was not just built for the kids, it was built for us to train in. We can do search and rescue survival type of stuff in it. Normally we wear our gear and we go through it and it helps us to stay prepared,' Plummer said.
Plummer said each age group would get to go through a safety trailer and they would teach them how to do safety drills in the home.
'It teaches you how if you're home and it's dark and late at night and they wake up to their smoke alarm going off, the proper procedures and steps to safely get out of the home in a timely fashion and then where to go when they're exiting out of the home so they can wait on mom or dad and it gives them a plan that way if it ever happens they know what to do,' Plummer said.
Each child had some homework during camp, as well. Plummer said how they would give the kids some homework each week and the homework was to talk to someone at home about preparing if they have a fire, what they would do and to create a plan as a family. They're taught to make a safe meeting location outside of their home and that way they can be reunited out of the home, whether it be in the yard somewhere or at the neighbors.
'This plan is also for the parents to not have to guess whether their child is still in the home, if they come out and see their children at the safe meeting location, they know everybody got out safely,' Plummer said.
Plummer enjoyed seeing the kids learn and interact with the different agencies like the DeRidder Police Department.
'For all three weeks they got to see the Police Department and got to see their unit and have a tour of their unit, it's not all about just us, we're bringing in other agencies,' Plummer said.
'They get to see all these emergency services and how we come together and we don't place one above the other, we all have our parts,' Plummer said.
Plummer's favorite part of camp is being with the kids and teaching them.
'I had one student come up and say how we need to do this more often, like more than once a year because they enjoy it so much,' Plummer said. 'We do this so the kids can see that behind all the flashing lights and sirens we're all just people that do this for a living and we can come together and have fun.'