With his classmates cheering, it was finally Daejon Johnson’s turn to begin.
The Starkville High School junior struck a tire 50 times with a sledge hammer, toted weights around a cone and pulled a weighted hose as he mocked climbing stairs.
Finally, the exhausted Johnson finished the obstacle course Tuesday at Fire Station 2 on Airport Road — one similar to the course men and women with the Starkville Fire Department complete. For Johnson and his 20 classmates in SHS’ Law and Public Safety II class, the exercise was part of their final exam.
“This (obstacle course) is very exciting and very tiring,” Johnson said as he caught his breath. “It’s a good opportunity to come out here because we learned all of this in class.”
Also as part of Tuesday’s program, students completed a simulated search and rescue by following a hose in a dark, fog-filled room with a firefighter’s face mask on.
“As a teacher, I cannot instill these values,” teacher Heather Fair said. “At the same time, parents and social groupings alone can not produce well-rounded individuals. It takes a community, and that’s what Chief (Charles) Yarbrough and the Starkville Fire Department give us. When the school and the community work together it promotes student success.”
As school winds down across the Golden Triangle, students will begin staying home again, and the summer will kick into full gear. With the summer approaching, each fire department sees a different set of issues arise.
Some students, like Johnson, learn fire safety in their classes, and he said he feels more confident knowing what to do in certain situations to keep him safe.
“We learn different scenarios,” Johnson said. “For example, we learn that in a grease fire you’re not supposed to pour water on it. We dive into fire safety, and we hit it hard.”
Still, others haven’t had such targeted fire safety training. In Columbus, Fire and Rescue Chief Duane Hughes said the COVID-19 pandemic has kept them from their regular visits to schools the last two school years.
“I think calls are going to be up this summer simply because people have been restricted with the COVID-19 quarantine, and I really see them coming out in huge numbers this summer,” Hughes said. “It’s really good that we can get back out and reconnect as long as we keep safety in mind. … Because of COVID, we haven’t been allowed in the schools basically for the last two years, so we have a generation of young ones out there that haven’t been exposed to fire safety education. It’s really important we get back into the schools this fall.”
For students who are staying home by themselves, it is important for children to know to call 9-1-1 immediately and to leave the building and not go back inside. Hughes said CFR’s average response time to calls is two minutes after the truck leaves the station, so no one should rush back in to try to save someone or something.
One commonality SFD, CFR and the Lowndes County Volunteer Fire Department see each summer is grass fires. Yarbrough said certain safety measures need to be in place before anyone begins to burn grass.
“People tend to burn their grass in the summer,” Yarbrough said. “If they do that, they need to make sure they keep a reliable water source within 50 feet.”
Grill fires are not very common for the chiefs, but Hughes noted the improper disposal of coals can often result in fires hours later. He emphasized not throwing away coals and ashes that are still warm.
Though fireworks are not permitted in city limits in both Columbus and Starkville, rural departments receive fireworks-related calls.
LCVFD Chief Neal Austin stressed the importance of knowing the weather conditions in the area such as the last time it rained and the speed and direction of the wind.
“If it’s really dry in the month of July, we do see grass fires,” Austin said. “Sometimes people set off fireworks too close to a structure and dry shingles can catch on fire and cause an entire structure to go up in flames. It all depends on the weather.”
Water safety and heat exhaustion
All three fire departments respond to rescue missions, and in the summer months, many of those rescue missions are water-related. When it comes to incidents in and around water, especially lakes, rivers and creeks, all three chiefs suggested always wearing a life jacket and never going alone.
Austin said LCVFD responds to calls in creeks where someone has incorrectly estimated the currents.
“The biggest thing we see are people who underestimate the current,” Austin said. “It’s usually not the big river that we see this issue. It’s usually our creeks and stuff that people like to ride intertubes on. People underestimate the currents and eddies or how far they are off of the banks. Always swim with somebody and always wear a life jacket.”
Yarbrough said SFD responds to a lot of heat exhaustion calls, and though it is impossible to dodge the heat during a Mississippi summer, it is important to drink lots of water and find shade or an area to try to cool off.
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