b-live links school children to fire and rescue service

Photo caption: pupils in action and the whole party with Chief Fire Officer Paul Fuller and Tanja Kuveljic, Managing Director of b-live (who made presentations of certificates together)

An interactive web site aimed at schoolchildren has been used by Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Service to get across critical information.

Young people logging on to the social club part of the site are encouraged to think about home fire and road safety - and even look ahead to a career in the fire and rescue service.

A special summer home fire safety competition hosted on www.b-live.com led to more than 380 entries being received and judged by Chief Fire Officer Paul Fuller. The top students were rewarded with a visit to a fire station - complete with firefighter training.

Said CFO Fuller: “This is useful way of using modern methods of communication, a special, safe social network site, to engage with young people in schools and get across some key messages. We welcomed all the entries and wanted to invite the winners to one of our stations to let them see for themselves the importantance of fire safety.

“We also hope that it will set the seeds of an idea about a career in the modern Fire and Rescue Service - especially among the girls who, despite our greatest efforts, continue to be under represented in our ranks.”

Middle School pupils from Daubeney in Kempston; Marston Vale, Stewartby and Holywell in Cranfield travelled from Fire HQ in Kempston to Luton Fire Station to be met by the BLFRS team of Jane Clarke and Watch Commander Alan Gayter and colleagues from Green Watch.

Jane, aided by Firefighters Dawn Hakewill and Ryan Humphrey, gave the pupils a lesson in home fire safety, including a tour of the “hazard house” in which various fire risks are demonstrated. She also showed them a dramatic film called Front Room Fire which shows how a lounge can become an inferno just three minutes after a match is dropped on to a sofa.

After a tasty lunch in the firefighters’ mess desk, the pupils then dressed up in mini firefighter outfits and were shown how to crawl through a darken series of corridors, clamber up the training tower, run out a heavy hose and fire jets of water.

Co-ordinator of the event was BLFRS Service Improvement Manager Prue Canham, she said: “As part of the competition we asked the young people to come up with slogans for fire safety and we were really pleased at the quality of those produced.”

The winning students were presented with their certificates by CFO Fuller and Managing Director of The b-live Foundation Tanja Kuveljic who said: “Working with organisations like BLFRS is fundamental to helping us achieve our mission of supporting the development of young people. We are delighted to work in partnership with BLFRS to help local young people appreciate, and counter, the risks that fire can present to their own safety as well as that of their local communities.”