Repulse Bay (Nov 03/04) - Members of the Repulse Bay Volunteer Fire Department spent some time with students at Tusarvik school this past month in recognition of Fire Prevention Week.

Volunteer firefighter Johnny Tagornak says the members enjoy spending time at the school and decided to take a different approach with this year's visit.

"Our goal during our visit this year was to show the younger students what we look like when we answer an alarm," says Tagornak.

"If they're trapped inside a burning house and we have to go in after them, we can look like a bunch of pretty scary people coming towards them while wearing our bunker gear and breathing apparatus.

"If they see us in the school and get used to what we look like in that situation, they'll know even though we might look scary, we're really there to help."

There were, in fact, three or four students who were quite scared by the firefighters in their full equipment.

Their reaction to the visitors proved Tagornak's logic to be correct.

While the Grade 1 students reacted well to the visit, the parents of a handful of kindergarten students had to come and retrieve their children when the appearance of the firefighters upset them.

One kindergarten student was so unsettled by their appearance, he was even hesitant to re-enter his classroom the next day.

For the most part, however, once they got over their initial surprise of how the visitors looked, the vast majority of the students had a great time interacting with the firefighters.

"They really enjoyed trying to get into our bunker gear and breathing stuff.

"We even tried to get one of the teachers to put on our breathing apparatus, but she didn't want to."

Tagornak says the volunteers took their fire truck to the school during Fire Prevention Week in 2003 and each year they'll try to come up with something different for the kids.

"It's important for the kids to learn a bit about fire prevention and, at the same time, have some fun with the firefighters and get used to being around them.

"But maybe we'll come up with something a little less scary for next year."