Students from Alliance Learning’s Engineering Academy have been getting actively involved in promoting fire safety in and around the Bolton area.
The 17 Year 10 pupils attended a hard hitting 4 week course at Horwich Fire Station in a bid to raise awareness about the dangers of prank calls, officer attacks and fire safety in the home.
The course comes after the Communities and Local Government announced that on average, there are 8260 accidental house fires in the Northwest each year, 290 of which occur in Bolton.
The students, who are from schools Rivington & Blackrod, St Josephs RC, Westhoughton and Sharples, attended a presentation at the station on 19th June to receive honorary praise and certificates for their achievements throughout the programme.
Jack Wilkinson, a student from Rivington and Blackrod commented:
“I really enjoyed working with the fire service and especially liked learning how to use the practical breathing apparatus that they use in search and rescue. The experience is something that will stay with me and I have definitely learnt valuable dos and don’ts about fire safety.”
Horwich Fire Station began the programme last year and since then it has gone from strength to strength, attracting interest from their unique, direct approach to demonstrations and real life enactments.
Glyn McGann, Watch Manager at Horwich Fire Station said:
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“Fire safety is paramount to everyone in our community and by educating young people firsthand about the risks improves everybody’s safety and makes our job a lot more productive. The Alliance students are a credit to our cause and showed great maturity and understanding of both the equipment and the theory.”
The prominence of the programme highlights Greater Manchester’s recent ‘Pull Your Finger Out’ campaign that tackles the startling stat that although 95% of the Northwest’s households have a smoke alarm, 75% of those do not test their alarm at all; risking their homes and safety of loved ones.
