Young People Fired Up About Explorers

Are you interested in someday becoming a firefighter? Do you know what firefighters do? What education, training and experience is necessary to become a firefighter? How hard is the job? What does the daily work schedule look like? Will I like the job?

If you are a young adult ages 15 to 20, one way to find answers for these questions would be to join the Fire Explorers. The Fire Explorers is chartered by the Boy Scouts of America and is a co-ed program that focuses on five areas of emphasis for young people: career opportunities, service learning, leadership experience, life skills and character education.

Last night at the central fire station on 26 Upton St., Fire Chief Michael "Mickey'' Gauthier hosted a group of young people from the community who are interested in helping out the community by volunteering and also possibly laying the groundwork for a career as a firefighter by becoming fire explorers.

The evening began with Chief Gauthier and some of his firefighters telling the interested parties about the program, which is new to Grafton, and how it works. Explorers help the department in myriad ways while learning the ABC's of being a firefighter.

Every Explorer member gets full turn-out gear and practice in getting in and out of it, which is in itself no easy task. They would also get First Responder training, which includes First Aid and CPR.

Explorers would help firefighters in laying, cleaning and folding the hoses after a fire. They also perform some of the important but unseen jobs, which include finding and marking the many fire hydrants of the town. This can be extremely important especially after a hard winter such as this one where the hydrants aren’t as visible.

The firefighters then gave the prospective Explorers a tour of the facilities and the gear that they would use and the different trucks used. One of the more interesting gadgets was a thermal scope that registers heat. Firefighters use it in locating lost people in the woods or searching for people trapped in buildings.

No visit to the fire house would be complete without a turn sliding down the fire pole, which all of the Explorers found to be not quite as easy as it looks.

The Explorers plan to meet on two Wednesdays a month. The program, which is part of the Learning For Life program, is always open to anyone interested.

For more information, call the Fire Department business line at (508) 839-4606.