First Ever Indigenous Youth Boot Camp In Williams Lake Was A Huge Success

To say the first ever Indigenous Youth Boot Camp for structural fire fighting went well in the Lake City would be an understatement.

Held this past Wednesday and Thursday (October 16 & 17) at the Williams Lake Fire Hall, Fire Chief Evan Dean said he was deeply proud and humbled to have been a part of it.

Dean said approximately 25 students from local First Nations from across the Region took part in a number of exercises from setting up hydrants to working with some of their live fire props.

“Any time that you have somebody choose to take time out of their day and come and do something that they are interested in you’ll get a little bit more engagement. These kids definitely seemed to be looking at this a potential career or even just something they can help out in their community when they get older.”

Dean said they did get a lot of questions from the students who were very engaged in this two day event.

We asked Dean if this is something the Department would do again.

“For sure, it’s a really great template that First Nation Emergency Services Society (FNESS) had for this boot camp. We’re looking at utilizing a similar model, potentially doing it more of a Cariboo focused event,” Dean said, “possibly for different groups as well but it’s something we definitely we’d like to continue in the future.”

Dean said a number of the Williams Lake Fire Department took time off work to come to help with this and all expressed how great it was to see the students soaking everything up making the whole event worthwhile.

He thanked First Nation Emergency Services Society and School District 27 for helping put this all together.