The Greenwood Fire Department will be holding a “Kids Firefighter Challenge” on Saturday. Daily Journal File Photo
For one day, Greenwood-area youth can see if they have what it takes to be a firefighter.
The Greenwood Fire Department is holding its Kids Firefighter Challenge from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Participants will run through an obstacle course, which is set up to mimic what it is like to be a firefighter, behind Greenwood Fire Headquarters/Station 91, 155 E. Main St.
While the free event is fully “sold out” with participants, members of the public can still come watch and check out the vendors, said Tyler Swardson, public information officer for Greenwood Fire. Vendors include Bailey and Wood Financial Group, which is bringing ice cream and Kona Ice, which will provide refreshments.
Other vendors include a bounce house, a dunk tank and American Muscle Factory. The department will also have its new tiller truck, a tractor-drawn aerial device with two drivers, out for the public to see, Swardson said.
The challenge includes running through cones and ladders, crawling in pipes, a “dummy drag,” two-hand carry and fire hose drag and target sprays. The pipe crawling is similar to what firefighters do when they have to crawl through a home, while the two-hand carry is similar to what firefighters do to carry hoses, Swardson said.
As for the “dummy drag,” kids will drag dummies similar to what firefighters do when they have to drag people out of houses, he said.
“We do have child dummies that are a lot lighter. They’re made to mimic a child for our training purposes,” Swardson said. “However, we’ll be using those for this challenge, as they are lighter, and we’ll be there to assist the younger, littler kids that might have trouble pulling something that’s literally their size.”
The fire hose drag, as the name implies, involves dragging out a hose. The target spray involves a revolving target that spins back and forth when its hit with water, and kids will be able to open the fire nozzle and spray water out of the hose, Swardson said.
The event will be a lot of “trial and error,” Swardson said. Greenwood Fire has done the challenge in the past, but it wasn’t a consistent annual affair. Deputy Fire Marshal Ryan Angrick approached Swardson about developing it into a yearly contest, he said. Angrick’s job is primarily investigations, but also prevention, outreach and public education.
“This is something that we want to continue to do each year, and that we will definitely kind of look and see where our roadblocks are this year and use that to adjust accordingly for next year and years to come,” he said.
Because of community support, putting on the challenge will come, for the most part, at little to no cost to Greenwood Fire. They’re expecting to spend a little on overtime because firefighters will be working, but almost everything has been donated for the challenge, Swardson said.
“We’re definitely grateful for all of those partners that reach out,” he said. “A lot of them, like I said, reached out to us, wanting to help and wanting to participate in this challenge.”
Those whose kids are taking part, or want to stop by, should be aware that parking may fill up quickly. The public is asked to park on the gravel lots north of the fire station, but these may fill up quickly due to a nearby event also on Saturday: the Greater Greenwood Community Band’s annual community band festival.
Greenwood Police will be on hand to direct traffic for the firefighter challenge, Swardson said.
To learn more about the challenge, go to facebook.com/events/7264865980302400/.
