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Teamwork is an essential component in the Fire Service, as it is in
life. Campers participate in the week’s activities in small groups
under the direct supervision of a skilled professional firefighter.
Activities are selected to both challenge and encourage a camper’s
inner self.
 Fire
Camp began in 1998 as a means to bring the youth of the region a
summer experience that would last a lifetime. Each day of the day camp allows 50
junior high school young people a chance to see the varied disciplines
of today’s fire service.
This year, Fire Camp was nominated as an exemplar "school to
work" program offered in the Sacramento region. The Camp’s
activities extend the California junior high school curriculum on
career and vocational education.
The kids are grouped into "strike teams" of 5 campers,
mentored and supervised by a professional firefighter. As the week
progresses the teams take on a character of their own as they learn
about the job of a firefighter and experience such activities as:
earning a CPR card, putting out a flammable liquid fire with a fire
extinguisher, climbing a 105’ aerial ladder truck, learning
first-aid, developing the traditional skills of a bucket brigade and
hand pumper crew, seeing medivac helicopters land, riding with the
District’s water rescue team, auto extrication, and participating in
a Kid’s Fire Muster.
Through the vision and dedication of over 65 District employees,
and supported by local businesses, community groups, and allied public
agencies, Fire Camp brings youth and public servants together in an
atmosphere of support, encouragement, excitement, and family.
Fire Camp is a community outreach program that has positive effects
at the individual, family, neighborhood, school, and community levels.
As Camp begins, firefighters assume the role of camp counselor and are
assigned 5 campers who develop a bond during the week long camp.
Interacting with the youth through the course of the camp allows the
youth, some of which are looking for guidance and role models in their
life, time to sense the values engendered in our job. Those values
include the necessity for personal integrity, compassion for human
suffering, joy in life’s subtle treasures, and the realization that
much of life is about working with others to achieve common goals and
objectives…teamwork.
"Building social capital," the notion of developing an
involved and engaged citizenry is essential to the continuation of our
country’s republican democracy. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote over 150
years ago of the importance of creating opportunity for the Country’s
citizenry to participate and understand government close to home in
order to build public leaders for the future. Small community based
programs designed to educate and involve the members of our community
are key to this concept. The youth participating in Fire Camp not only
come away at the end of the week with new skills in first-aid and home
safety, they go back to their families with a greater appreciation and
knowledge of the work of government…of our fire department.
The benefits of community outreach programs such as this one have
both short and long term impacts. Fire Camp may encourage a spark (no
pun intended) in a camper to become a firefighter. If so, we have
recruited for the future. The Camp may create an understanding of the
importance of providing high quality emergency services. The Camp may
involve an entire family around the participant’s daily activities
as mom and dad listen to the youth’s narration of the day’s
events. Fire Camp may allow a business patron to see the human side of
a government organization, often viewed as otherwise impersonal or
disconnected.
The members of the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District are
sincerely interested in being your neighborhood firefighters.
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