“Can anyone help?!” A boy cries out at a burning subway. A few meters away, his friend is dying on the floor in agony: “I’m dying, help!” Firefighters rush down the stairs and help the coughing ‘victims’ out of the station. Not soon after, another team arrives to extinguish the fire. As real as it may seem, fortunately it is not. The youth fire brigade held a major exercise on the defense grounds in Vught on Saturday. “I’ve never experienced this before, so cool.”
Fake wounds, real fire and sound effects. Everything has been pulled out of the closet to make the exercise as realistic as possible for the young people. About three hundred youth firefighters participate in the exercise, spread over the morning and afternoon. They are faced with an attack on a subway station, burning cars and a bus accident. It is up to the young commanders to direct their teams as best as possible to rescue the victims and extinguish the fires.
“Just like being with the real fire department.”
A big job for the Veldhovense Dewi (15). “It is with a lot of people. Normally we only do it ourselves with our team and I make the plan. Now you have to take everyone into account,” she explains. With red cheeks from the effort, she is full of adrenaline after enjoying with teammate Maartje (14).
Both girls have a passion for the fire service in their family. “When I was very small I already had a fireman’s outfit”, Maartje beams. “It is very nice to be able to get started with the high-pressure sprayer myself. It looks like you are in the real fire department.”
“It’s cool to put out something together.”
11-year-old Stef also follows his father. As one of the youngest participants, he enjoyed the exercise. “We made sure we had water and that we could put out the fire. We had to work together a lot and also borrow stuff from each other,” he explains.
“It is a really good experience, nice to experience this.” His teammate Shanna (17) joins in. When she is old enough she might even want to follow the training. “It’s cool that so many people have to work together to put something out.”
