Petrofac Training Educates Children on Fire Awareness

Petrofac Training and Tayside Fire and Rescue are working together to give children in the Angus and Tayside area training in fire awareness and techniques.

Petrofac Training has been supporting the Young Fire Fighters Programme, dedicated to educating children, aged between 13 and 16, on fire awareness around the hazards and risks associated with it, through financial support and utilisation of its facilities.

The programme runs for four weeks and covers: hose handling equipment familiarisation, breathing apparatus, smoke house, fire extinguishers, fire safety at home, and road traffic collision. All subjects are covered through theory lessons and practical exercises. The training takes place at Brechin Fire station and at Petrofac Training’s facilities in Montrose, where Petrofac Training’s instructors teach the children how to use the different types of fire extinguishers and get them involved in role playing games to further strengthen the lessons learned.

Recently, the youth centre in Brechin, The Attic, made a request to Tayside Fire and Rescue to get its children involved in this training programme and with the support of Petrofac Training, together with other oil & gas service companies, they brought the training programme to Brechin.

Gary Ross, a long-time fire instructor with Petrofac Training and a member of the Tayside Fire and Rescue team, ran the programme. He said: “It was great to see that everyone involved put in the necessary effort to make this an enjoyable course and a different experience for the kids. It was also great to get the support from local companies that provided sponsorships to make this programme feasible.

“Running these courses allows the children to take part in dealing with an emergency situation, showing them best ways to react and all hazards involved, while also giving them some guidance to a career path within the fire brigade, which might be something that they want to pursue in the future.”

The programme ran at full capacity and was a great success for the community. Two of the students, Lee and Barry, said: “At the end of the four weeks we thanked the fire fighters for letting us take part in the course. We have learned that fires are worse than we thought, and we have learned how to put out a fire and how to help people in an accident. We feel that this was an excellent opportunity and we would encourage other youngsters to go, as it was a very good experience. The only bad part was that it was over too quickly, but other than that it was really fun.”

The Attic has requested for another programme to be run for girls. This has been accepted and it will be run with the support of Petrofac Training.