Eight Carroll County residents will step into firefighters? boots this weekend ? learning cardiopulmonary resuscitation, riding emergency vehicles and dousing a live fire ? to emphasize the everyday work of the county?s legions of volunteer firefighters.
They will participate in the Sykesville-Freedom Area Volunteer Fire Department?s second annual Firefighter Fantasy Weekend ? similar to the popular football and baseball fantasy camps ? to garner more attention to overworked area fire departments, saidSykesville fire department spokesman Bill Rehkopf.
The Sykesville volunteer fire department is the second-largest and second-busiest company in the county, just after Westminster, Rehkopf said, and always could use more volunteers and donations.
“The Eldersburg/Sykesville area has a lot of new houses, new development and new residents,” he said.
“We?re out here, and we need a lot of help.”
Carroll County has 14 fire departments and between 700 to 750 volunteers, said Leon Fleming, liaison to the Carroll County Volunteer Emergency Services Association. The volunteers are supplemented by paid personnel, who are mostly paramedics and drivers for the departments? heavy equipment.
“This is a short weekend, only a small example of what we do,” Fleming said. “The fantasy weekend is Sykesville?s thing, but it?s a need throughout Carroll County.”
Among the four men and four women signed up, only one has experience as a firefighter, Rehkopf said. The rest are a 31-year-old housewife and a husband-and-wife pair of senior citizens.
The participants will begin today with a live-fire drill at Carroll County?s fire department training facility on Route 32 and then practice smoky search-and-rescue operations at a vacant Eldersburg house donated to the fire department.
This evening, the participants will be taught CPR, then sleep over at the station before concluding Sunday by using the Jaws of Life to practice rescue procedures on abandoned cars.
