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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Firefighting homeschooler






One way we "supplement" Emily's homeschooling is by her being a fire fighter cadet. She is a volunteer at our local fire department (which is all volunteer for both in town and rural). She is a cadet. To be a cadet she must maintain a good grade average and attending training, among other things. She attends the same training as the adults and goes out on calls just as a regular firefighter.

Friday night and Saturday our department hosted training on school bus accidents. We had several other fire fighter departments from the state that also attended. Emily attended with JD and was the youngest female to go through the course. It started out as a cool day, but got very hot. By the time you add in the weight and heat of the bunker gear, it was not pleasant....

Her highlight of the day was kicking out the front windshield of the school bus before it was rolled over. She also learned to operate the various rescue saws and how to right or raise a vehicle with air bags. They cut up the bus, removed seats and learned where the various unseen parts of the bus (such as roof supports) are located.

She has also taken her NIMS tests and passed. Her next test will be HAZMAT, and next week we attend a class on forced entry. She is also able to start most of the fire vehicles on the department, although she is too young to drive them.

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