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CORAL HARBOUR - A young man from Coral Harbour was proclaimed Nunavut Junior Fire Chief this past month.

Kevin Angootealuk, 8, received a prize package from Coral fire chief Clayton Nakoolak and fire prevention officer Allan Smith of the Fire Marshal's Office on behalf of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs (CAFC).

Kevin Angootealuk, 8, of Coral Harbour shows the certificate proclaiming him Nunavut Junior Fire Chief at Sakku school this past month. - photo courtesy of Al Smith

The CAFC joined with Duracell and Canadian Tire to sponsor a Canadian Junior Fire Chief contest as part of its 100th anniversary.

Children aged seven to 12 entered online and received valuable fire-prevention information.

One winner from each province and territory was selected.

Angootealuk received a tour of the Coral fire hall from Nakoolak, who then drove the boy to a student assembly at Sakku school in the community's fire truck.

With many of his family members looking on, Angootealuk was presented with his prize package during the assembly.

The prize pack consisted of a junior fire chief track suit, MP4 player, $100 Canadian Tire gift card and numerous Duracell products.

Angootealuk said he enjoyed the ride in the fire truck and was happy with the prizes he received.

"I like the track suit the best, even better than the MP4," said Angootealuk.

"It was fun in the fire truck when the lights and siren were turned on.

"I learned a lot in the contest, like kids should never play with lighters because bad things can happen."

Rankin Inlet fire chief Alan Stebbing said he firmly supports these types of educational contests.

He said a fire department's number one goal is to prevent fire.

"The best way to fight fire is to prevent it from happening, and this contest provided a lot of valuable fire-prevention information to a large number of kids," said Stebbing

"When the kids go online and receive this information, a lot of it really sticks with them.

"A good example of that is the prevention program we've been implementing in Rankin during the past two years, and the reduction in child fire-play incidents we saw in 2008 as compared to 2007.

"A huge part of that reduction is education."