Young Scouts Visit Fire Station

Scouting is about Skills for Life and understanding the local community and the people who keep us safe. We can never start too young.
Warden Hill Beaver Scouts, aged 6 to 8, recently visited the Luton community fire station. This experience took 2 weeks, because of the size of the colony, with half of the young people the 1st week, the other Beavers visiting the 2nd week.
The night was run by Amanda, the Home Safety Centre manager, and by the fire fighters of Red Watch. The crew were very friendly, kind and encouraging, and the young people also got to see and watch a live emergency call out. The Beavers went into ‘Grannie’s house’ where they helped to spot dangers, causes of fires and went over what to do in the case of an emergency.
They watched some firefighters come down the slide pole and learned about what they would do and wear if there was a call. The fire pole was invented in the 1870s by David Kenyon, in Chicago, Illinois. USA.
All young budding fire fighters dream of the fire engine. This dream came true as young people got to see, and go inside a fire engine; the fire fighters then took some of the equipment out of the engine to show them.
Lastly, they all got to use the hose and all got a bit wet. The Beavers all had smiles on their faces and were very enthusiastic with questions. One of the young people said “it was awesome because we got to go in the truck and play with the hoses”, and one of the parents at pickup commented “it was good to see the Beavers having a chance to meet the firefighters and to see how they help the community”.
The visit forms part of the World Challenge badge which in turn goes towards the Chief Scout’s Bronze award. Each week, the remaining half of Beavers who didn’t visit the station worked on their Experiment badge back at the HQ, learning how to make their own lava lamps by using vegetable oil, water, food colouring and Alka Seltzer. They also floated a grape, by changing the density of the water with salt, and made hand-drawn spiders move by drawing on tinfoil, adding water and then racing them to the finish line by blowing gently with a straw.
Abigail Wright Article & Pictures. Beavers by poles picture Amy Chambers