St. John's Regional Fire Department igniting a love of firefighting in young cadets

Climbing a ladder attached to a fire truck 75 feet into the air may not be for the faint of heart, but it's exactly how some teenage Air Cadets in St. John's spent their time on Sunday. 

The St. John's Regional Fire Department is hoping to attract young members of the 508 Caribou Royal Air Cadets to careers in firefighting through two weekends of hands-on training sessions in October, called Camp Ignite.

Halfway through day two, it may be working. 

"I think I'll have to consider the option, yes," said Zach Pomroy, a sergeant in the 508 Caribou cadets. "This enticed me very much to really really think hard about it."

The ladder was definitely a favourite part of the training weekend, with cadets like Pomroy eager to experience the thrill of being more than seven stories off the ground

"It's the highest I've been except in a glider," the cadet said.

Looking for tomorrow's recruits

The idea for a training camp for cadets came very naturally for St. John's Regional Fire, as a relationship already existed between some of the retired firefighters and the 508 squadron, especially when it came to Duke of Edinburgh activities for the youth involved. 

"The planets came into alignment, and we said, 'great, let's go with the concept," Chief Jerry Peach told CBC.

Peach says unlike a public tour of trucks and equipment, the cadets actually get the opportunity to get in behind the wheels of the trucks, and try doing some of the things real responders do every day.

The fire chief hopes allowing the cadets to get that exclusive experience means the groundwork may already be laid for future recruits who come looking to join.

"It is not difficult to recruit firefighters, we have a lineup at our doors," said Peach.

"But that's ok for today, we have to think further, we have to think about tomorrow — and we have to start getting our youth interested in our career early enough so that they can start making some choices."