2/16/09

Explorer Conference


This weekend Papa, Daniel, and Anne went down to an Explorer/Fire Cadet conference/competition in Coral Springs Florida at the Coral Springs FIre Academy. They left Friday in The Keystone Heights Volunteer Fire Department's Squad 10 accompanied by Caleb Eades and his mother Laura Eades. After the long drive down they slept the night in a classroom at the fire academy. Saturday after breakfast they completed the conference registration and were of to the days events which included vehichel extrication, hose drills, technical rescue, rapelling, and a class on SWAT medics and dive rescue.



Daniel and Caleb agreed that they liked extrication best of all. After all, how often do you get to puncture tires, smash windshiels and rear windows, and cut up cars in the name of training! (Daniel is on the left of the photo Caleb is in the center of the photo and an explorer form another post is on the right of the photo holding the cutters.)


The ground based monitor was fun to control!



The technical rescue included lifting Caleb up high in a stokes basket!

After Technical rescue Daniel, Caleb, and Anne all rapelled from the fire tower. After the conference and cleanup the fun began. Blow up toys including a velcro wall, bungee run, and clibming wall were brought in. The activity Daniel enjoyed most was the blow up obstacle course. He and Caleb did it many times and were definentely sore from doing it at full speed a couple dozen times!



Anne and Papa competed in the bungee run!

After the raffle in which Caleb won a t-shirt and acquired a CD carrying case, they watched Fireproof in the room Papa, Daniel, and Caleb were sleeping in. On Sunday they observed the competition before heading for home. Once back at the station Caleb and Daniel washed and vacaumed the Squad.

Authors note:
This is a highly abbreviated account of the action packed weekend and only touches on a few major points.

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