Fire Prevention Week keeps chief busy
Drills held all over town
Shawn Giilck
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, October 17, 2013
INUVIK
Fire Chief Jim Sawkins might have been the busiest man in town last week, as the fire department marked Fire Prevention Week.
Inuvik Fire Chief Jim Sawkins said students at East Three School performed well at a surprise fire drill Oct. 9. The test was part of Fire Prevention Week activities. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo
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Sawkins had fire drills – some surprise and some not – scheduled all over town from Oct. 7-11.
That went along with displays, exhibitions and training sessions.
On Oct. 9, Sawkins sprang a surprise fire drill on East Three School at 9:30 a.m.
The students dutifully filed out in orderly fashion after Sawkins pulled the alarm and the fire trucks on standby roared in.
"It's cold out here isn't it," Sawkins bellowed at the high school students shivering in the 0 C weather, after speaking to the elementary students first.
Most were without coats.
"That's why you never pull the fire alarm unless there's actually a fire," he said. "How would you like to do this in -30 C? It wouldn't be fun, would it, and the trucks wouldn't be waiting to come to the school. My firefighters would have to assemble from their jobs all over town, and they wouldn't be right here."
After his talk, Sawkins then directed the students back into the school. Several were notably unimpressed with the drill, muttering some profane comments about the weather.
As they filed in, Sawkins said he was pretty pleased with the drill, which didn't come as a complete surprise to some of the teachers.
He wasn't happy that word had got out accidentally to several people that the drill was going to happen, but East Three Secondary School principal Deb Maguire wasn't one of them.
"I wish I had known," she said.
She was quick to emphasize that the event was "just a drill and no one had pulled an alarm."
The day before, Sawkins had spent the afternoon training the town staff on fire procedures. Later on Oct. 9, he conducted a course on fire extinguishing.
For the rest of the week, Sawkins was a familiar sight all over town as he pulled one alarm after another, then evaluated the results.
On Oct. 10, he visited Aurora College and spoke to the students. The same day, he lectured the workers at the courthouse building after their drill.
He told Peter Clarkson, the regional director for the GNWT executive, among others, that it would be a good idea to re-introduce the floor marshal system to help improve the co-ordination for emergency procedures.
On Friday, Sawkins popped by the Inuvik Youth Centre, where the occupants piled out in about a minute flat.
Overall, he said he was pleased with the results he was getting, and it was great exposure for Fire Prevention Week.
