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NANTICOKE — Smoke. Water. Flames.
Children attending Luzerne County Community College’s week-long fire camp watched members of the Nanticoke Fire Department put out a real blaze Friday morning.
Nanticoke firefighter John Zegarski, also a teacher at the college’s Public Safety Training Institute, headed the fire scenario.
“They’re grasping everything more,” Zegarski said about the kids. “Putting everything (they learned) together.”
About a dozen 12 to 14-year-olds took part in listening to the sirens of the institute’s fire trucks, watching firefighters put out the fire and saw the rescue of a mannequin victim.
“As chaotic as it looks, a lot of things happen at the same time,” Zegarski told the children.
Lucas Dwyer, 12, of Wilkes-Barre, wants to learn “how to fight a fire.” He also, admittedly, attended the camp for rank advancement in his Boy Scout troop.
Dwyer was able to rescue a “victim” from the building after the fire was extinguished. He made sure he was wore a helmet and gloves, though.
“Firefighters risk their lives,” said Dwyer, who attended the camp to see emergency services in action.
Campmates Kayleigh Sararka, 12, of the Wanamie section of Newport Township, and Chase Knouse, 13 of Hanover Township, thought the week was “interesting.”
“It was really cool to get with firefighters,” Sararka said. She watched in awe as firefighters lit pallets on fire in the fire training building. It surprised her how easy it was to start the fire.
Nanticoke’s Rebekah Rowles, 12, learned a few things about firefighting — like the fact fire departments conduct a secondary search after the initial fire is put out to look for hot spots and other potential victims.
Zegarski allowed the campers to get close enough to the fire to feel the heat and Dwyer was surprised at how fast a fire could become more than someone can handle.
Most of the campers, Rowles included, thought the flames from just two wooden pallets were hotter than they had expected.
“They could get out of control and dangerous,” Zegarski said of fires.
The fire was the penultimate event in the week long course; the campers graduated after the blaze was knocked down. During the week, LifeFlight landed at the PTSI, there was a vehicle rescue and extrication demonstration and students learned how to tie ropes and knots in case of emergency.
